Devil Nights
by El Stormo
Summary: Great deeds and those who perform them are well documented, but the lives they touch, change, save and end only briefly hover into view as long as they remain relevant to the greater whole, then are cast aside as the tale runs after the heroes, hoping to keep up. And yet, every one of those is a story of its own.
1. First Night

**First Night**

* * *

Red flashes were the first things she perceived. That, and pain. All across her body. Especially in her belly, red, hot, searing, constant pain. Cold, too. On the skin of her upper body, but also inside her. She lay in an awkward position, with all kinds of things poking in her back and her legs up against some kind of wall.

The red flashes persisted. Flash-flash. Flash-flash. Flash-flash.

They were lights penetrating her eyelids.

She opened her eyes despite the headache and saw a red-lit, small chamber around her, but something was _wrong_ with it. Wait, no, not a chamber, the interior of a vehicle. Bags, packets, tubing, all sorts of medical equipment lay strewn about. Blue lights flashed outside, reflecting on metal. Flash-flash. Flash-flash. Flash-flash.

This was an ambulance. But it was all wrong. Skewed. And then she realized. She lay with her back against the side of the cabin, her legs up on what should have been the floor, but was now a wall. A stretcher still hung onto it, clamped into position. Bloody.

What the fuck was she doing in an ambulance? She looked down at herself and inhaled sharply in surprise and horror. Between her naked breasts lay a red rope of intestine that was _hers_. Her belly had been sliced open horizontally, her insides bulging out. She let out a few terrified gasps, hoarsely vocalized. Oh shit, shit, the damn thing _hurt_! Panic overtaking her, she frantically packed the guts back in, not even thinking about how dirty her hands might be or what a horrible risk for infection it was. The guts more or less shoved back in, she clawed around for bandages, compresses, suture equipment, anything that could close the horrible gap in her abdomen.

Her hand touched something soft, wet and warm. She yelped and drew it back when she realized she'd actually set her hand on the dead chest of a paramedic, his eyes wide open and his head at an awkward angle, the neck snapped when the ambulance had overturned.

She had to keep looking. In too much pain to move more than just her arms, she felt on, and finally her hand settled on a roll of medical tape. Clumsily, she held the gash closed with one fist and tore off strips of medical tape with her other hand and teeth, sticking them on her belly over, across, and next to each other, until they could hold on their own.

How was she still alive?

Groaning, she tried to turn over and found that, despite the pain, it turned out to be actually manageable. Fiery, searing lances shot up from her abdomen, but her body obeyed her instructions, albeit slowly and with enormous effort. She clawed for purchase and began dragging herself out of the ambulance, its back doors wide open, but bent and dented.

What the drek had happened here? The strips of tape on her gut pulled and stretched, but she made it out, sliding out of the ambulance's back, her body slapping down on the moist asphalt.

"My God, miss, are you alright?"

Oh, thank the stars, help was coming. A young native man of around twenty-five came running, his bowl-cut hair flapping as he approached. "Miss? Try not to move."

She didn't realize she was naked from the waist up, and didn't care, and neither did the man, kneeling next to her and taking her arms to support her. "Perhaps you… shouldn't get up."

"Wh… what happened?" she managed to croak. "Where is this?"

"You're in Kwun Tong, you…" the guy explained, wide-eyed. "The ambulance you were in, well…"

She looked behind her, in the direction he pointed. The vehicle lay on its side, surrounded by broken glass and twisted metal, its emergency lights still flashing soundlessly. Another car stood perpendicular to it, its hood a flattened mess of crushed metal, with the massive dent in the side of the ambulance showing where what had hit what.

The driver's upper body lay on the windshield, motionless, with its face turned away from them, his short black hair wet with blood. He'd worn a suit, and it was as bloody as his hair, and the crumpled hood beneath him. There was no way he'd survived.

"He looks dead, but… I have to check. Is there anyone else alive?"

"Para… paramedic in c… cabin is… dead. Br… broken neck."

"Can you stay here?" the young man, dressed in rather lowlife clothing, asked her, his voice shaking. "I'm going to see if anyone else survived."

Kneeling, she flapped her hand. "G… go."

Before he went to check, though, he shrugged off his leather jacket and draped it over her shoulders. "Here, so you're less n… uh, less cold."

"Th… thanks."

She sat on the asphalt, kneeled and shivering, waiting to hear from the guy no longer wearing the leather jacket. She couldn't go and check, just sitting up straight was already extremely difficult. They were at a T-intersection under a bridge, in what looked to be a dirt poor area of the city. Trash bags were heaped up near one of the bridge supports, and graffiti was everywhere. The few residences she could see were large blocks in terrible repair. The few street lights that were still lit, were faint bathing the area in a sickly yellow light.

"This guy is… oh God."

That told her enough.

"Hello?" she heard the kid call out. "Anyone there! If you can hear me, say someth – " He interrupted himself. "Oh. Oh God. Oh God, she's…"

She heard unstable footsteps coming back to her.

"They're all dead. The other driver, he… through the windshield, and the st… steering rod… and the ambulance driver… she… her chest…"

She said nothing. What was there to say?

"I sh… should call another ambulance for you. And tell them what… what happened," the guy said, coming to kneel by her again. "You're hurt, you need – " But he abruptly stopped, looking past her, to the building blocks looming down on the underpass.

"Wh… what's wrong?"

"People coming. Looters probably. We… shouldn't stay here, we can't help these dead people anymore." She felt hands slide under her arms, and he lifted her to her feet. "Who knows what they'll do to a… half-naked, injured woman in the middle of the night." A short pause, and then, "especially one wearing high-grade body armour on her lower half."

He was right. The top of her armoured suit had been stripped off for easy access to her injuries, but the pants she was wearing were expensive-looking tactical armoured trousers in vectran so dark grey it was almost black, with composite-reinforced boots underneath, splattered with blood. They felt and looked familiar, she'd been wearing these often. Where was her memory? Was it simply rattled from the accident or was it actually gone? Was it even possible to lose one's memory in such a specific manner?

"Come on, we have to go."

She pulled the leather jacket tighter around herself and let the man guide and support her, away from the crash site. These people had died fighting for her life, and now she just left them there. It was heart-breaking, but the guy was right. On top of all the unconscionable things the disgruntled masses could do to a semi-naked white female who obviously looked like she was part of the hated enforcers of the rich, they would definitely be smart enough to realize she could be held for ransom.

She staggered along, supported by her benefactor, hoping the small group of oncoming gawkers-slash-scavengers would not pursue.

"Come on, just a little further, keep going."

He led her into an alleyway, from there into another alleyway, then across a broad street in terrible repair. It was a gauntlet of pain, and with every step, she feared the tape would let go and her guts would slide out of her, onto the damp, dirty street. They slipped into the space between two houses, where he rapped hard on a door.

"It's me, Huojin. Open up." Nothing happened, and he struck the door hard with his knuckles again. "Come on, hurry, I've got an injured person here, dammit."

There was a series of clicks and clacks, and with her head drooping, she saw the door open slightly.

"Are you _insane_?" a female voice hissed. "You brought someone _here_?"

"Look, it's – "

"And a _grunt_? A… a fucking _grunt_? Have you lost your _mind_?"

"Just let us in, Ning," she heard her rescuer half-shout nervously. "She needs help, no matter who she is."

The female voice whispered, in suppressed lividness, " _No fucking names_."

"Let us in, or the boss is going to hear about this."

There was a short silence, then the door slammed closed, there was another series of clicks and clacks, and then it opened again. She couldn't keep her eyes open, just wanted to sleep. As the man, apparently called Huojin, dragged her inside, the woman, of whom she could only see worn combat boots, cursed in Mandarin and barked at Huojin, "This bitch is _gutted_. She's fucking _done for_."

"Look, just help me get her on the bed, then get Ali… uh, Tweezer."

"Why? She's half past dead anyway."

"Don't be ridiculous, she can still walk. Kinda. Please, Ning, just go get Tweezer."

Another curse in Mandarin, and the boots stomped off. She was supported to the far end of the room, then there was a sense of displacement as Huojin helped her lie down on a grungy, smelly cot. "You go on and rest, alright. Don't worry about Ning, she…" she could almost _hear_ him look around to make sure she was out of earshot, "… she's a bit… difficult."

None of it mattered anymore. All she wanted was to sleep.

"Tweezer might seem a bit weird, but she's the best street doc I've ever known. Well, not that… not that I know many, but still. She'll help. Just lie still, alright? We'll see about the rest tomorrow."

Yes, tomorrow. Good idea. She just… wanted… to… sleep…


	2. Second Night

**Second Night**

* * *

Even though they'd draped a ragged blanket over her, she was terribly cold. Still, she'd woken up, that meant she'd made it through the night. Unless she'd died and was in some kind of squalid, smelly version of Hell.

She opened her eyes and saw a young woman sitting next to her on a chair, smoking a cigarette, her legs crossed. Immediately, the girl's eyes zipped towards her and she greeted her with a downright hostile, "Oh look. You're awake. Goodie." It was very dark, but sharp ears visibly protruded from her straight black hair.

"Y… yeah, I'm…"

"Yes, yes," she sighed in annoyance. "You've made it through, good for you. Pardon me for not jumping for joy."

This was clearly the owner of the voice last night. Ning? Something like that. Huojin had been right, it seemed. She was difficult. "Look," she began, "I just – "

She held up a hand and turned her face away. "I don't care. Just lie there, let me go get Tweezer." She rose, brushing imaginary dust off the sleeves of her black woollen turtleneck pullover, as if she wanted to get the filth of her new guest off her, and walked off.

Whoever this Tweezer was, she hoped she'd be of a better disposition than this surly Elf. Sure, she probably wasn't a welcome guest, being who she was, but still, come on.

She seemed to remember more, thankfully. Her name, for starters. That was always nice. And she worked security for one of the big corps. Tsang, that was it. Memories came back to her, and she closed her eyes and sorted them, putting them in order and assembling them into a coherent picture. But no memories that explained why she'd been half dead in an ambulance. She'd heard that was normal. People who got into accidents often didn't remember what had happened and had to have the whole thing explained to them.

And now she was in a squalid hovel in… some part of town. She didn't even know where. The shitty part. It always made her sad when she thought of how the people had to live here, but she was also realistic enough to know she had her own problems and couldn't save the world. At least, not with the security job she had now. The police had never been an option – they were bent as Hell in HK, just like everywhere else – and she didn't have any particular skills or talents, apart from being proficient with a gun and, to a lesser extent, close quarters combat. Some people told her she also had her looks, but those people were probably the kind who told everyone that.

She looked around the gloomy shack, only a small step above the cabins built from corrugated metal. This one had walls, but the entire inner structure was divided by wooden planks nailed against metal wall studs, and ragged curtains. No doors, no real walls. The roof did actually qualify for corrugated-metal-status, and she heard the rain gently tap on the steel. What little furniture there was, was mismatched except for its crumminess, and borderline worthless. Rusty metal folding chairs, rickety little tables. It was all so depressing.

"Oh hallo," a cheerful, almost jittery voice returned her to the present. Standing over her was a blonde woman with her hair tied in two pigtails, clad in what looked to be a butcher's smock over a worn leather biker jacket and blue jeans. "Alors. It goes?" She wore a broad grin.

"Uh, hi. Um, what goes?"

She giggled. "You feel better?"

"Oh. Yeah," She croaked. "Kinda." She did feel better. Her belly still hurt, but much less than yesterday. In fact, she felt surprisingly good. Cold and woozy, though.

"I am Alisa," her voice carried a heavy French accent. "But I have the street name Tweezer." Her head bobbed from one side to the other as she talked, making her look like an oversized ten-year-old. "Ning does not like it when we use real names. Oops. Sorry, Ning." She giggled. "What is your name?"

"I'm uh," she remembered her name, all she had to do was say it out loud, "Ekatarina… but my friends call just me Katie or Kate. Since you guys saved me, I s'pose you're friends."

"We will see," she said with a coy smirk. She was pretty – for an Orc – but so cheerful Kate wondered if she wasn't simply batshit crazy. Anyone who was cheerful in a place like this had to be off her rocker. "We will look at your wounds now."

"Uh, sure." Right, Tweezer. This was the medic, or what passed for one in this hole. These people didn't look like a family, and the mention of street names, as well as the mismatched nature of this group gave her a pretty good idea of who these people were – or wanted to be. If she was right, then yeah, then were technically enemies, she supposed. But how could she be enemies with people who'd taken her in and probably saved her life? She figured she could thank them by not reporting them the minute she walked out the door, to start.

Tweezer pulled the blanket off her. She'd put a shirt on her patient at some point during her sleep, thankfully, an oversized one with a print of a giant, two-legged, rocket-launching and laser-shooting robot on it. Lifting the shirt to uncover her abdomen and shining a flashlight on the injury, the Orc girl remarked, "Hmmm. You heal very quick, n'est-ce pas?"

She looked down at herself to see that, indeed, the terrible gash was already closing, half as broad as it was last night, with pink, new flesh forming on either side. The clumsy tape-job had been removed, replaced with asymmetrical but efficient-looking stitches.

The medic frowned. "You have slept all day. You heal wounds very fast. Your temperature is very low." She stood up, looking almost as if she recoiled. "There is something that is not normal."

"What? What's wrong?"

"I… must see your eyes."

"O… kay?"

The Orc girl slowly lifted the flashlight to shine into her eyes. What she saw – whatever it was – made her inhale sharply in fright. She immediately jumped up and backed away. "Tu bouges pas! Tu restes là, c'est compris? You… you stay right there. You don't move."

Not understanding, Kate showed her empty hands, sitting up straight, slowly. "I'm… not going anywhere. What's wrong?"

"You… you don't know?" The girl's face was confused and frightened at the same time, and her hand was feeling for the medical instruments on the tray beside her. "You're not… not lying, are you?"

"Okay," she explained. Might as well come clean and tell them everything. They were not very liable to off her or sell her for ransom after all the effort they'd done. Perhaps if she was honest about everything, they'd have some trust in her. "Listen. I know you're probably wondering who I work for. I'll tell you straight, I'm with the Tsang Corporation. Security division. I don't care about politics or oppressing the weak, I just wanted a stable wage, and the opportunity to make have a modest career, but just internal stuff, you know, no…" she trailed off when she saw the Orc girl shake her head, her hand settling on a scalpel. "What? I'm telling the truth."

"You really… don't know, do you?"

"Don't know _what_?" she snapped, her inability to understand making her nervous.

The street medic breathed hard, her mind clearly working furiously, trying to decide whether or not to continue the conversation or simply go into fight-or-flight mode.

"Look, Tweezer," she grunted. Stupid street names these types gave themselves. "Ugh, _Alisa_. I'm not dangerous. I owe you my life. I don't know what you're afraid of, but I can't possibly imagine it being worse than me reporting you to the cops as soon as I leave here. Which I _won't_."

"It's not _that_ ," the girl half-shouted nervously, then quickly looked around to check no one had heard. "It's something else," she continued quietly. "You…"

"What? _What, dammit_?"

The medic held her palms in front of her. "Alright. I will trust you about this. But you stay there, alright?"

"I won't try anything, just… tell me."

The girl remained silent, and with trembling hands, picked up a small make-up mirror and held it out, immediately pulling her hand back when Kate took it. With a _plop_ , the medic's flashlight fell on the blanket next to Kate. "You have to look at your eyes."

Bothered, Kate grabbed the mirror and looked at herself, shining the flashlight at an angle so it didn't blind her. What she saw made her breath briefly stop. "My… my eye, what…"

"Have you… felt anything else unusual?"

"No, just… nothing that couldn't be attributed to the injuries. Cold, slowed heart rate, weak muscles. Stuff like that." She looked at her left eye again. It wasn't just bloodshot, it was much more than that. All the veins in her sclera were bright red, dilated and swollen, looking like a web of fat, bloody strands being spun over her eyeball. The other eye was completely unaffected. "What the Hell is going on with me?"

The Orc girl breathed deep, closed her eyes, and said, "So you don't know."

" _Obviously!_ " she shouted back, her voice ear-piercingly loud in the silence of the hovel. Damn it, this girl was trying her patience. Her eyes looked like they were in the process of fucking _mutating_ and this Tusker still couldn't spit it out. She had to close her eyes and recollect herself. It wasn't right to call rotten names to someone who'd taken her in and patched her up, no matter how nervous she was.

Another breath. "Please don't be angry on me for telling you this. But…" she reconsidered. "Wait. We must be sure. Ning!"

Oh great, she was going to get the bitchy Elf to join in.

From a distance away, came an annoyed voice. "What?"

"Come here. Hurry."

A dismissive snort. "I'm not spending any more time near – "

"Sois pas un trou de cul! This is urgent."

There was the sound of a plate and silverware being banged down, and then trudging footsteps. " _What_?"

"Read her aura." The girl was insistent, her eyes wide.

She blew. "What, to know she's a corp grunt with a credstick where a heart should be?"

The medic took another breath, this one to contain her anger, and said low, "Ning. I need you to work with me here. Can you _please_ read her aura?"

The Elven girl rolled her eyes. " _Fine_." Another short grunt, and the woman closed her eyes. Everything was quiet for a short time, Kate only barely capable of keeping her nerves.

"Whoa, what the…" The Elf's eyes flew open, and in a quick motion, she drew a pistol, pointing it straight at Kate's forehead. "Get this bitch out of here _right now_."

"Was the aura…" Tweezer asked, and Ning finished, her voice shaky, "… frayed and blackened. Yes. Drek! Fucking Huojin brought a god damn jiangshi here."

"Okay," Kate said calmly, her confusion and anxiousness temporarily overridden by the gun in her face. "I don't know what's going on, but I can tell you that I really have _no_ intention of hurting anyone. Can you _please_ tell me what you two are going all panicky about? I'm just some corpsec gun on legs, nothing more."

Tweezer and Ning quickly shared a nervous glance, and then the medic slowly said. "Whatever it was that happened to you before the ambulance, you… took something with you. You are… infected."

Holy shit what was going on here? "Infected with what? Is it contagious?"

"Why are we wasting time talking?" Ning rapped, her voice close to breaking. "She has to leave, _now_ , before she turns on us."

Tweezer ignored her and said quietly, "The… Human Meta-Human Vampiric Virus. Probably the Harz-Greenbaum strain."

Kate's voice failed her. "The wh… the what?" she could only croak.

" _The_ Human Meta-Human Vampiric Virus. The retrovirus that turns metahumans into… monsters. In your case…"

"A vampire," Ning finished. "A blood-sucker."

This was ridiculous. Vampires? She'd heard of them, but she'd heard of lots of things, and the people around her had always assured her they were myths. Sure, there was such a thing as magic and shamanism and all that, but vampires? Zombies? They were fairy tales. "Look, there has to be some kind of logical explanation – "

"Yes," Tweezer cut her off. "The logical explanation is that you were infected by micro-organisms that took over your cells and are currently uh, how you say… rewriting your genetic code. The mutations in the eyes are… a first sign."

"Bullshit," Kate said. "If I was a vampire, I'd have like, fangs – " her voice stalled when she unconsciously ran her tongue over her teeth and realized that her eye teeth were sharp and pointed. Her stomach felt like it slowly shrunk into a leaden ball and she slowly fell back in her bed. "Oh this can't be happening. This can't be fucking happening…"

"I'm… sorry?" Tweezer said carefully. "For what it's worth, you seem to be relatively unaffected emotionally… I mean, you didn't even know – "

"Assuming this isn't just an act," Ning interrupted her, the gun still raised. "She might be faking it for all we know."

"Mais putain! So she faked the ambulance crash? And then she spent hours lying here, doing nothing instead of killing us all?" Tweezer said to her. "No, it's not an act."

"I don't – "

"Ning. She's clearly as shocked as we are."

Kate didn't even hear what they were saying. The only thing in her head was now _oh god I'm a vampire oh god I'm a vampire oh god I'm a vampire_ over and over again. Was she going to turn into a rampaging monster? A deranged nightstalker? Would she burn in the sunlight? Not be able to enter a house unless invited? Was her life, essentially, over?

"There have been… many reports on the Shadowland BBS about humans infected with the HMHVV being able to lead, uh, how you say, uh… relatively normal lives. They… don't go insane like most metahumans do." Tweezer paused and then admitted. "I'm… not a virologist, but I know… how you say… the base?"

The door banged open, and Huojin stormed in, his face panicked and wet from the rain. "You. You can't stay here."

All eyes went to him, and Ning asked, "How do you know she's – "

"There's corp agents combing the neighbourhood," Huojin panted, running his hand through his wet hair. "At least, I'm pretty sure they're corp. And before you suggest it, no, it's not a search party."

"What's going on?" Ning demanded to know.

"Like I said. Corp gunmen kicking down doors. They're not here to rescue our patient. They're wearing thermals, packing live ammo, suppressors. Already shot a few people for resisting, and for being SINless. Including some hiding in the closets, before they even knew who they were. So no, it's not a rescue operation."

The Elf shot a dirty look toward Kate. "Some friends you have."

"What? I have no idea – "

"Sure you don't," she snapped back. "Think they're searching for illegally copied trids? Maybe for outstanding parking tickets?"

"Not helping," Tweezer stopped her. "We need to figure out what to do."

"Easy," Ning said curtly. "We give them what they want." She couldn't be serious.

"Hey, hold on a second. I don't know what this is about, I really don't," Kate tried to explain, "but I'm telling you, there's no reason to assume they're even looking for me to begin with. But if they're shooting people, they'll probably kill me too, just for being there. You're not seriously thinking about handing me over to some random murder squad, are you?"

"If that gets them off our back," the Elf bit at her, "then yes. If they're shooting people for being SINless – "

"She's right, Ning. You want to kick her out on the street?" Huojin protested too, thankfully. "To get shot? Hoping she's the one they want and they'll leave us alone? Is that how we do things, Ning? When the boss gets here, we'll – "

"We can't wait for the boss," Tweezer immediately stopped him. "We have to go. Can you walk?"

"I… yeah, I can walk." She definitely could. She still felt weak and vulnerable, but there was almost no pain anymore, no feeling of being injured. "But… if they're killing people, shouldn't we – "

Huojin shook his head. "These are professional killers. Military or corporate. _Cleaners_. Top of the line equipment, years of training, we don't stand a chance. No point dying along with them." Fair point. "I know how you feel, but there's nothing we can do. A firefight would just get us killed and cause even more civilian casualties." He was right. She hated it, but he was right. "I'll get the hatch."

That was something at least, these guys had a secret escape route. She had no idea what the shit was going on, but a hit squad going from door to door simply could not be good news for her, even if it didn't have anything to do with her. But wasn't it a bit naïve to think this was all unrelated? Why else would assassins break down doors and shoot everyone that was hiding or didn't identify themselves?

The sounds were coming closer now. Of doors being kicked in. People scattering. A few screams of alarm being quickly cut short.

"Come on," Tweezer said, helping Kate out of the bed before grabbing her pistol and frayed medic bag. "We have to get to the hatch and get far away so their thermal vision can no longer pick us up."

"You're going to show her the escape?" Ning breathed, exasperated, shrugging on the strap of her submachine gun nevertheless. "You drekhead! Are you _insane_?"

"Come on, Ning," Huojin merely told her, grabbing his cheap, worn cyberdeck and buckling his gunbelt. "It's too late to worry now. Get your stuff, we have to go." He ran for the kitchen, slid his knife inside a small slit, and used the blade as a lever to lift a section of the tiles. Then he kicked two duffel bags down the hole. "Down here, go."

"Hide your fangs," Tweezer whispered at Kate as she led her patient to the kitchen. "From the others here too. The less people who know about it, the better."

"This breeder drekbitch is going to get us all killed," Ning cursed, sliding lithely down the hatch, Huojin motioning for Tweezer and Kate to hurry. The sounds came closer. Only a few doors down. Kate's eye fell on the armoured trousers with the Tsang logo. She quickly snatched them off the table and went down the ladder after Tweezer, with Huojin coming last and letting the hatch fall closed.

A few metres ahead, Ning conjured up a small dancing flame, lighting up her silhouette as she marched briskly on, the anger clear in her step. They followed her, getting as much distance between them and the house as possible. Kate had Tsang-issued thermals back in her locker, but she'd only been allowed to use them once or twice and couldn't tell for sure how far they detected heat signatures underground. In this cold tunnel of solid stone, hopefully not too far.

"The escape ends in a false storm drain near the dock," Tweezer whispered to Kate. "But we'll just sit tight for a bit. Until the heatwave passes."

"Not the first time we had to hide here," Huojin chuckled, trying to sound confident. "Don't worry, all our stuff's in the duffel bags, they won't know it's a Sh… uh, a house where um, you know."

"Shadowrunners live," Kate finished, making sure her apathy was abundantly clear. "I'm not going to report you," she sighed. "I already told you that. I'm as confused by this as you are." She put on the armoured trousers over her shorts, because why not. They felt familiar and safe. If only she still had the top half.

"There's no point speculating anyway," Tweezer said quietly. "We'll have to wait and see. Might be about something completely different."

"How long do we wait?" Ning grunted, letting the flame wink out of existence and putting them back in the dark. Kate noticed she could still see shapes, while the others immediately started feeling for the walls. Perks of being a vampire, she supposed. Fuck, she had that to deal with too.

"At least an hour or two, I think," Huojin said. "We have to be sure they're gone. And then we have to figure out what to do. I mean, I don't think it'd be a good idea for you to stroll back to Tsang and say how good it is to be back, for now at least." A short silence. "By the way, I never got your name?"

She heard Ning let out a grunting sigh, probably accompanied by a roll of her eyes.

"It's Ekatarina. But my friends call me Katie or Kate. Anything's fine. Thanks for getting me out of there, by the way, I haven't had the chance to mention that yet."

She could all but hear him smile. "That's fine. Good thing I got there when I did. Weird to see you up and about so quickly though. With the way you were banged up last night, I was afraid we'd have to drag you down here."

"I uh… just heal quickly, I suppose."

A snort in the darkness from Ning. _Woman, shut up._

"Well, now we're here," Huojin's voice sighed, "Might as well properly introduce ourselves. You already know we're Shadowrunners, so you also know we best stop with the real names from now on."

"Yeah," Tweezer said. "Best to be safe."

"You already know Tweezer," Huojin went on. "From now on, Ning is Mornie. She's our mage. And best to call me Frywire, starting from now."

Weird that she thought of the medic as Tweezer instead of Alisa, while she thought of the other two by their real names. Kate found the nicknames absolutely ridiculous, but whatever, if it floated their boat. She might as well show some interest. "So uh, I was always told Runners had meanings behind their nicknames. I'd like to hear yours?"

Ning snorted again. "Fucking _rude_."

Oops, that was apparently not done? Or perhaps Ning, err, _Mornie_ , found everything she said rude in one way or another. But no, this one was Kate's faux pas, although Huojin chuckled and said, "It's not polite to ask for the meaning of a street name right off the bat. But sure, I can tell you mine." He paused for a moment. "It's a bit embarrassing, but you'd hear sooner or later." He scraped his throat. "The first job we did was an archive robbery. Now, the thing was, the place was secured by several low-tech mag-locks, and everyone counted on me to disable them." His voice became more animated as he spoke, and he clearly enjoyed telling the story, reminding Kate of the stories her partners always told when she was assigned to the monitoring station. It took her mind of the current clusterfuck for a bit. "But the thing was," Huojin, well, 'Frywire' went on, enthusiastic and excited, "the mag-locks were easy to open, and I figured I'd get through them in no time, but – "

"He jacked his cyberdeck into a power socket instead of a data slot like a fucking idiot and fried the whole thing into a heap of smouldering plastic," Ning intoned in a bored voice, scraping her boots on the concrete.

A short silence, and then Huojin slowly said, "Uh… yes. That's, um… what happened."

Damn. This guy had been so swept up in his story, clearly enjoying the telling, and bam, shut down. On the one hand, it was good news for Kate, because it probably wasn't personal, but on the other hand… what a total bitch.

"Merci à toi, Mornie," Alisa – Tweezer – agreed. "After all, we're spending two hours in the dark, so why not ruin every diversion we could possibly have, right?"

"Fuck off. I never agreed to this."

Bitterly, Huojin told Kate, "Ning has never heard of the term, 'making the best out of a bad situation'."

Invisible to the others in the dark, Kate saw Ning put up her middle finger. What the crap was her problem? Kate didn't think it was low self-esteem. After all, the girl was absolutely gorgeous, or at least she would be if she didn't wear an angry bitchface all the time, and her fellow Runners seemed to be much nicer to her than she deserved, so it certainly wasn't that. Maybe some people were just assholes, and this was one of them. She'd always imagined Shadowrunners to be these kinds of brothers-in-arms, tight-knit groups of rogues fighting the world from the shadows, in the spirit of camaraderie, adventure, and steel on steel. The stuff of legends, right? This group… didn't entirely adhere to that romantic image.

She also realized that these guys probably weren't all that experienced. Calling their equipment 'low-grade' was using the word generously. Sure, Kate was used to solid quality arms provided by Tsang, but she'd tussled with a few groups of runners during her short career (thankfully never with fatalities on either side, though her squad had managed to apprehend the occasional miscreant), and they'd all been equipped with better gear. Outdated black market stuff, sure, but nowhere near as crappy as this. But it wasn't just that. They slipped up constantly, using real names more than street names, and bickered more than they cooperated. And she hadn't met 'the boss' yet. She wondered, maybe he or she was the glue that held everything together? It was definitely possible. She'd known squads at Tsang Sec who couldn't even have lunch without arguing, but who turned into a single-minded machine whenever their sergeant was near.

In fact, her own squad, Hound, had been mostly dependent on its leader too, and when Phillip had been promoted to lieutenant and mutated to detective, the squad had lost its linchpin. It had been great news, but only for Phillip, not the rest of them. Zhao had done his best, but despite being a great security agent, he wasn't cut out to be a sergeant, even taking into account his newly-promotedness, and they'd slowly become "that one squad" of underperforming misfits, so much that they were often divided up and detached to other squads during operations, or even sent to positions on their own. Always the less important ones.

It had never been because its members were bad security officers (they weren't for the most part), but because they simply didn't work as a team anymore. The only squad that performed even less cohesively than Hound had been Ox, and they had the excuse of having half their team consist of new guys after one of their APCs had run over an IED. Dragon would probably have some staffing problems as well. Quite a few of them had been killed during a data theft gone violent only days ago. Kate was usually detached to Rooster or Goat, and every time she worked with them, she was jealous of their teamwork, and even they were amateurs, so she was told, compared to Snake and Horse, who were apparently so attuned to each other its members were often jokingly suspected of sharing a telepathic link.

Perhaps these guys were the same. They'd apparently completed operations before, so perhaps Kate was wrong. Or their boss was the central linchpin Phillip had been for Hound.

She decided to simply ask the question outright, both out of curiosity, and to make conversation. "So uh, who's this boss you mentioned?"

She heard Ning breathe out through her nose and ignored it.

"The boss," Alisa explained, "is, well… our boss." She giggled. "Ex-military from the Congo Tribal Lands, before it became the DMZ."

"Huojin said, with awe, "He's… seen some drek."

"Can't deck or cast spells worth jack," Ning grunted, "but he can wipe out an entire bunch of you glorified janitors without breaking a sweat."

Everything she said needed to be acidic, didn't it?

"His street name is Kaffir. No idea what his real name is," Huojin said, "but I wouldn't tell you if I knew, heh."

"Kaffir?" Kate asked. "Strange name."

Ning couldn't resist muttering, "There she goes again."

The others ignored her, and Tweezer said, "Apparently it's a word that dates way back to the Fifth World. No idea what it means."

Huojin added, "Though I'm sure he does."

"He and Bubbles are meeting a fixer. Other side of Hong Kong," Tweezer said. "These killers will be gone by then."

Kate had to stifle a laugh. "Bubbles?"

A short silence, then Huojin's voice came, sheepishly. "He… likes to blow bubbles in his milk."

"You'll meet them soon," Tweezer said. "Don't worry, they're good people."

"I'm… sure."

"The boss will know what to do," Huojin said, his voice full of confidence. It seems this 'boss' was indeed the glue holding this team together. "Don't worry, he won't hand you over or kill you. He's a hardass, but his heart's in the right place."

Tweezer agreed. "Absolutely. Bubbles will take some… getting used to, but you'll get along great with the boss, don't worry."

"He might not get along with me," Kate pointed out. "I'm still, well, the enemy."

She could see Huojin's silhouette shake its head. "You're an injured person we're taking care of. When you're healed up and safe, you can go back to Tsang and be the enemy again. Until then, he'll help you out, believe me."

"I'm not sure I should even go back to Tsang," Kate thought out loud. "If those hitmen were sent by my corp, and they were certainly sent by _a_ corp, then they were definitely looking for me. There's… no other explanation that makes sense."

"That would make the dead people topside your fault," Ning couldn't resist making known.

"Let it go, Ning," Huojin merely told her.

It was ridiculous to say all this was Kate's responsibility. How could it be if she didn't even know why this was happening, or even what was happening at all? She felt for the people getting their doors kicked down, their houses ransacked, and their people shot, but she was also rational enough not to be tricked by Ning's little guilt trip. This wasn't her fault, she was just a security guard. For the corps, sure, but protecting people was protecting people, corp or civ. They all bled red and they all needed protecting. All the dirty business the corps were involved in wasn't her affair, she simply patrolled the hallways, watched the CCTV monitors and kept the working man and woman safe. The custodians, the mechanics, the IT-guys, the sales people, the administrative assistants. The normal people, not the CEO's and executives and managers, but the ones just working for their wage with no involvement in the dirty politics at the top.

Sure, every once in a while they participated in what the corp called, in their PR-speak, 'proactive targeted security', which meant they rolled out to some location or other and seized assets or destroyed infrastructure known to be used by Tsang's direct rivals, and sometimes they flushed some shadowrunner group from their holes or rounded them up in cooperation with local police to teach them the merits of not getting themselves hired by the competition, but the few jobs she'd been on had been strictly zero-fatality ones. If Tsang needed a person, or group of persons, eliminated on a permanent basis, they didn't send Tsang Security, they sent the division with the inoffensive and newspaper-safe name 'Corporate Risk Management'. To Kate and her colleagues, they were more colloquially known as 'damage control' or 'the bribe alternative'. And of course, in the case of really dirty jobs that needed complete disavowability, the choice always went to Runners.

Neither of them were people Kate were involved with, or even knew about other than through scuttlebutt.

So no, this wasn't her fault, her responsibility, or even her concern. Human and metahuman lives were threatened, and that was terrible, but Huojin had been right. No point dying up there with them. These were Runners, so they were almost certainly SINless, and she'd probably get shot for resisting or simply being there. Provoking a fight would get them killed in short order, and lead to even more loss of life.

It was possible that the killers up there were indeed Tsang's bribe alternative. It was even likely. The company's security division had been on high alert after a break-in by a group of Shadowrunners, these guys much more capable than most, who'd made off with 'critical information and/or assets' according to the corp, as well as causing the deaths of about a dozen of her colleagues. Perhaps this was a retributive strike? Hey, there was a possibility.

"Hey uh…" she asked carefully. "You guys weren't at all involved with a high-profile data theft at Tsang, were you?"

"What? No," Tweezer responded, clearly having no idea what she was talking about. Kate believed her.

Ning, of course, felt it opportune to add, "High profile data theft, huh? You guys must really be good at your jobs."

This time, Kate couldn't help but grunt, "Fuck off."

"Does that theft happen to have anything to do with the Walled City?" Huojin asked.

"Walled City? You mean _the_ Walled City? Kowloon? No… Well, I don't know. They didn't tell us anything." A strange feeling took hold of her… something felt like it unlocked in her head.

"I'm just asking," Huojin went on, "because there were news reports about Tsang Security being deployed at the Walled City and the whole thing ending up in disaster. It was all censored, of course, and it probably wasn't your uh… group or platoon…"

"Squad," Kate informed him, almost not hearing herself speak. The Walled City. Something had happened there. She'd _been_ there.

"Right," she heard the guy say, far away. "But just figured it was possible. Same night you were in the ambulance wreck."

Her mouth moved on its own. "The Walled City… What was I doing there?"

"Wait," Tweezer asked, even though Kate didn't hear her. "You were at the Walled City? Last night? Katie, this could be important. Try to remember."

"I just remember… being assigned to secure… some place. Unimportant. On my own. Being brought in with the APC, then… walking to my designated position." She remembered alright. Remembered the squalid filth of Kowloon Walled City. The trash, the stink, the narrow alleys, flickering, buzzing lights, flies and vermin everywhere. Unclean people, hungry and desperate, some no longer able to walk. All of them accosting her for a handout, but getting nothing because the orders had been explicit. She'd been guarding some stupid platform of absolutely no importance. But what had happened then? She didn't remember.

"Do you know what happened at the Walled City?" Huojin asked. Ning was thankfully silent. "News reports have been contradicting and vague."

"I uh… just remember we had to go there to secure the place. No one in or out. Keep the civilians in check. You know, make sure they didn't riot or stampede and get themselves injured or killed. Evacuate them in an orderly fashion if necessary."

"Yeah, I'm sure that's the whole story," Ning scoffed. "I think you were deployed for an entirely different reason. Something you're holding out on us."

"I _told_ you," Kate snapped. "I'm a security agent, not a black ops commando. They don't tell me those things!"

"Do you remember exactly what your orders were?" Huojin asked.

"Just… keeping order. I was guarding some platform. Some totally insignificant bit of infrastructure. My job was to be more furniture than anything. But… I don't know what happened next. How I ended up in the ambulance."

"Maybe it will still come to you," Tweezer said, audibly disappointed.

"Sure hope so. If not, I intend to find out."

They all fell silent, and waited for the time to pass. Ning trudged about impatiently while the others occasionally exchanged a word or two. Kate was deep in thought, trying furiously to remember what had happened before the accident. One thing was certain. She'd gone into the Walled City as a normal human, and come out as a vampire. What the fuck had happened there?

"They should be gone by now," Huojin sighed. "Let's go back topside."

"Has it been two hours?" Tweezer asked. "It's hard to keep track."

The small display on Huojin's cyberdeck lit up. "One hour and fifty-one minutes."

"Good enough," Ning decided, stomping off towards the ladder. "Sick of this drek."

Despite Ning's deplorable way of expressing herself, the others all silently agreed and went back to the ladder, finding themselves back in the safe house (or better, _un_ safe house right now), blinking at the stark fluorescent lights.

"I'm going to investigate, see if anyone know what those spooks wanted," Huojin announced. "You stay here, alright? It's much too dangerous."

Kate could take care of herself, but the guy was right. Showing her face would be asking for trouble, especially she _had_ been the target, and the residents here knew. They'd probably vent their anger and grief on her in very painful and probably fatal ways.

"Yeah," Ning called after him. "Make sure to ask around if that murder squad was looking for an androgynous, pasty-skinned corp drone with tacky peroxide hair cut in the most clichéd security guard faux-hawk ever."

Kate wanted to punch her, but thankfully, Huojin did the honours for her. "Ning, just shut your damn mouth for one second."

"Besides," Tweezer said to her as Huojin left, her face carrying a slight hint of a grin. "You'd think you of all people would consider androgyny in a woman a plus."

"Yeah, you'd think wrong," Ning shot back. "Just because I'm into women, doesn't mean I'd ever even consider dirty corp minions." God _damn_ , this woman had better be a great mage, because right now, Kate saw no redeeming qualities to her. Her opinion of the Elf plunged even lower when she added, " _Especially_ not virus sacks."

She'd had enough. She was a guest, and these people had saved her, but even that gratitude had its limits. "Bitch, if you don't shut up right now," Kate threatened, "I'm going to teach you a lesson in the way I know best. And I'm _not_ good with words."

"Katie," Tweezer said calmly, her hand on her shoulder, "Stay calm. Don't let this escalate. If you harm one of us, we can't let you stay here. And that's exactly what she wants."

She was right. Ning stood looking, her hands in her sides, a challenging smirk on her bitchy fucking face. She was almost asking to be punched. Tweezer was right. If she socked Ning one, she'd have what she wanted. God damn, she hoped this entire mess was over soon so she could just go back to Tsang and not have to spend any more time in this place, with this woman. But what was she saying? Going back to Tsang. Like this? As a… fucking vampire? Would they even let her back in? Probably not… or maybe they could find someone to cure this thing? It was possible.

She'd have to deal with that later. Right now, the best thing for her to do was acknowledge that Tweezer was right. "Gonna have to do better than that to get rid of me, Ning."

Innocently, Ning simply chirped, "I'm just saying what I think," before turning on her heels and walking to the kitchen. "… chummer."

Tweezer sighed and shook her head. "We best wait until the boss is back. She'll have a lot less of a big mouth when he's here."

"Sure hope so."

"I'd… offer you something to eat, but…"

"No thanks." She didn't even have to try it to know she'd probably barf it all right back up within the hour. She'd have to find someone to tell her exactly what being a vampire meant. For now, she didn't feel that much different, just cold all the time, and there was this… strange sensation she had. As if her body felt less… real. Less _connected_ to her, for the lack of a better word. She hoped there was something she could do about that. Perhaps drinking blood could make the feeling go away, at least temporarily, but she couldn't ask that from her saviours, not even the bitchy ones like Ning. She didn't know how exactly the virus spread, but she could make a good guess that biting people had a good chance of transmitting it. And she didn't want to inflict this on others, especially not without knowing what the long-term consequences would be. Would she go crazy? Waste away? She had no idea.

"Alisa…" she asked the Orc. "Do you have any idea what being a vampire entails? Because… I really don't know what's going to happen to me."

The girl shook her head, looking sad. "I don't know either. And I don't want to tell you things that might end up being wrong. That would be worse than not saying." She sighed. "But there are people who know about occult diseases. I can check the Shadowland BBS for you if you'd like?"

She managed a smile. "That'd be nice. Just… be careful. I don't know what that whole thing is about, but make sure no one can… I don't know. Track you. Or identify you. Or me. You know."

"It'll be fine."

When Huojin came back in, his face told them all what they needed to know before he even opened his mouth to say, "The people I talked to all said the same thing. Those spooks shot everyone who was SINless, but those weren't their main targets. They shot people who hid and didn't identify themselves, and then verified the dead bodies against a holo. Guess whose face that showed."

Her heart sank. "Mine."

"Yours. The SINless were just gravy. You know, 'while we're here'."

"Think they'll be back?" Tweezer asked.

"Not sure. But we should let the boss know. Staying here might be dangerous. The boss'll know what to do. Until then, we should keep our guard up."

It turned out their guard did not need to be kept up for long. Only half an hour later, there was a knock on the door. The voice that came through didn't even wait for a response. "It's me. Open up."

As Huojin opened the door, Tweezer gave Kate a confident smile and said, "Don't worry, now that the boss is here, things'll work out."

"I hope so." That, or 'the boss' would rip her head off. Guys who came back from the Africas were usually somewhat… damaged by what they'd seen. She'd had one of them as a colleague a while back and boy was he weird.

The boss looked every bit like Kate thought he would look. A massive Troll with ebony skin and black cornrows that hung from the back of his head all the way to the waist. Beneath each of his eyes was a broad, horizontal smear of white paint. A pale brown trench coat completed the picture, and she wasn't surprised to see a bulky LMG on his back. The weapon looked like it had seen some action and taken more than a few beatings.

And the other guy must be Bubbles, a reddish bearded Dwarf, his moustache twisted into two long braids. He had his weapon on his back too, a mass-produced collapsible sniper rifle. It was obvious why he didn't carry a full-length one. A bandolier of lapua rounds hung across his chest. It was strange to see them carry their weapons so obviously, but they probably figured their boss was more than enough deterrent for anyone looking to start trouble. They were probably right.

"Client turned out to be a dud," the boss rumbled in his low voice, his African accent only vaguely discernible. "They're all talk until they have to pony up the credstick." His dark eyes fell on Kate. "Who's this?"

"This is Katie," Tweezer introduced her cheerfully. "Huojin pulled her from an ambulance wreck. She was in bad shape, but I fixed her up like the _enfant prodige_ I am."

"I see. And she's still here because…?"

"Come on, boss," the dwarf laughed with a grin. "We can use more women here. Tweez is too tall for me, and Ning doesn't like anything that can grow a beard anywhere else than down below."

"Pretty sure this one's too tall for you too," the boss grunted. "You should find yourself a nice Dwarven girl. Cause you less neck pains."

"Boss, was that a joke about my height?" the Dwarf asked with a grin.

"No. Your height's a joke all of its own," the boss said back, his face serious, but Kate could tell he was just winding the Dwarf up.

The Dwarf realized it too, and Kate realized this meant these two had known each other for a long time already. "Well at least my height _can_ be funny if it wants to be."

That got a chuckle out of the boss. "Now that that's out of the way, why don't you clue me in on what's been happening, Tweez? Saw some people hauling bodies. Cops come for some more target practice?"

They all sat on rickety folding chairs, gathered around a table, also of the folding variety, barely bigger than an old postage stamp on legs, and good for little more than being a fixture for one of the few lamps to stand on. Tweezer and Huojin did the explaining, with Ning being mercifully quiet. Tweezer left out Kate's infection, and Ning thankfully did not feel obliged to throw it into the group either. Kate did not speak unless spoken to. She knew damn well that she had no business offering opinions. Just being allowed to be present during the meeting was a privilege she knew she shouldn't handle carelessly.

Occasionally, the boss paused the telling to ask a question, nodding and motioning them to continue when it was answered. The entire group clearly deferred to him, and it wasn't just because he was a massive Troll able to rip their arms off – he had a natural charisma and leadership to him, and he could lead without ordering or threatening. Just like Phillip had been for her squad, this Troll was the central axle around whom the wheel of this Runner group turned.

He treated Kate with complete neutrality, which was better than she'd expected – it would be reasonable if regrettable of him to see her as the enemy.

When explanations were given and questions asked, Bubbles stroked his beard and said, "Women. Naught but trouble, aye?" adding a hoarse chuckle.

"Seems to me," the boss said, "that we have the following options. One option is, we part ways here, shake hands and move on with our lives. This option holds the distinct disadvantage of these cleaners coming back for a second look with murder on the side."

No one argued.

"Second option," the Troll went on, "is that we get those killers off our backs, and out of our neighbourhood by leaving our guest for them to pick up, in a clearly visible place. It won't be long until they hear of it, and rest assured they'll be here in minutes. They'd probably leave everyone here alone in… _gratitude_."

Ning said, in a far more quiet and respectful tone than usual, said, "It's… worth considering." She didn't dare look at Kate when she said it – as if she'd expected anything different from her.

Kaffir sighed. "This option holds the distinct disadvantage of us being unscrupulous, immoral finks who cave to the corps' brutalities and rat out fugitives to keep ourselves safe."

Bam. Kate wasn't unhappy to hear it, but Ning most certainly would be. Still, she only admitted, "Yes, that's true. I… hadn't looked at it that way yet."

"I've… done some digging on the Shadowland BBS," Huojin informed them. "There's… definitely something strange going on. Apparently Katie here isn't the only one being targeted by these killers. Several Tsang security gr… _officers_ … have gone missing or turned up dead under mysterious circumstances. Tsang is supposedly 'looking into the matter'." He scratched the side of his face. "Some of it is tin foil hat stuff, I mean, it _is_ the Shadowland BBS, but still. Further tin foil hattery suggests that all of them were people deployed to the Walled City yesterday evening." He looked around the room and finally settled his eyes on Kate. "Make of that what you will." He blinked, then cocked his head. "What's… wrong with your eyes?"

Oh shit. The redness had been invisible in the gloom, but not here, under the lights. "They're uh, just a little irritated," Kate said quickly. "Tweezer said it's a side effect of the injuries." Hopefully Huojin's medical knowledge, and that of the others, limited itself to 'wounds bad'. Tweezer, thankfully, confirmed the lie with a simple nod.

"Back to the matter at hand," Kaffir rumbled, "it seems someone is targeting Tsang's security people. It's definitely not Runners. From what you've told me, it sounds like black ops corp personnel. I don't care if corps kill each other's foot soldiers, in fact it's usually a good thing, but the problem is that we've got one of them right here." He thought for a moment. "You're certain you don't know what this is about? Certain and honest?"

Kate raised her hand. "I _swear_."

He nodded. "I believe you. Then I suppose, if you feel well and rested, you'd prefer to no longer associate with us? I don't think any payment is needed, you're free to go."

"Go where?" Tweezer asked. "She doesn't even know it's safe to return to Tsang. For all we know, it might be just as dangerous as staying here."

Swallowing, Kate made the suggestion that had been forming in her mind for a while. "There is… a third option, if I may? I mean, another possibility than turning me in or keeping quiet about me."

Kaffir's eyebrow went up. "Which is?"

"I hire you as Runners, to find out who or what wants me dead. And we see where we go from there."

The Troll grinned broadly. "A bold suggestion, indeed." He looked around the room, expecting no argument to what he was about to say. "We're Runners, we take any reasonable job, especially if it means messing with the corps… as long as you have the money."

Kate knew that someday, she'd be glad she always kept her credstick with her meagre life savings on her. Her armoured trousers had a compartment she always used to keep the stick in. Thankfully it hadn't been in the chest piece when it had been cut off her body, because the ambulance would be a stripped bare, burned wreck by now. "I have… _some_ money. I… don't know what Runners are usually paid, but this is my life savings." She fished the credstick out of her pocket and held it up. "It's… around sixteen thousand nuyen. I… don't know if that's enough." It broke her heart to have to use her meagre savings for this but she saw no other survivable option.

Kaffir laughed loudly and slapped his thigh. "Lady, you really are out of your element. Don't worry, I won't take advantage. Depending on how dangerous the job is, something between four and seven thousand nuyen should cover it."

Ning cleared her throat. "Boss, I don't know if it's relevant, but this is what we're usually paid after the fixer deducts his share." She was an entirely different woman, cautious and subservient. "However, since we have no fixer this time…"

"I'm aware of that, Mornie," Kaffir acknowledged, "but I'm charging what I think we should be paid, not what I think our client should pay. It's a fair price, and our client shouldn't be the one to overpay because there's no middle man."

"No, of course not. I was just – "

"Looking out for our interests," the Troll said gently. "I know, Mornie, and thank you for that." He turned to Kate. "Let's discuss business… Katie, was it? I assume I can call you that and we can dispense with the client-Runner formalities?"

She nodded. "It'd be pretty misplaced of me to stand on formalities now."

As if rehearsed, the entire group left the room, except for their leader. Huojin went out the door, the others went to other parts of the den, to give them privacy. The mere presence of their boss made them of a single mind. It was impressive to see.

"Alright then," Kaffir began. "What did you have planned?"

She wrung her hands nervously. "I… don't know, really. I was hoping you'd have a suggestion? I mean, you're the Runner and all?"

She expected him to get impatient or laugh at her, but he merely looked away, thinking. "If I were in your position, I'd start with the only place I know. You don't know who is trying to kill you, so you can't start there, but you do know what you and the other targets have in common. I'd start with your employer." He shrugged. "It's the only place you _can_ start, really."

"Mm. I can't just go up to them and ask, though. For uh… reasons."

"That's why you have us. Huojin should be able to navigate their network just fine, all we need is a port. Corp net security being what it is, I assume all the sensitive information is closed-circuit?"

She really had no idea, but she had been instructed to specifically watch for and report any unusual activity near data ports, and to check them for tampering regularly. They wouldn't do that if the network could just be accessed externally. Sometimes she'd even spent long, lonely nights guarding a single data port because there was personnel alien to the corp working in the building. And of course, there were the endless shifts standing watch over the vehicle repair hangar near the docks. The damn sectional gate often refused to close, and even though it had been reported many times before, nobody had fixed the damn thing yet, so every night, one unlucky sap had to spend the entire shift there, just standing in front of the open gate, looking out at the construction site on the other side of the street, with only the occasional patrol stopping by to check in and offer some opportunity for a brief conversation.

Of course, right now this very gate was an opportunity rather than a nuisance.

"It's all closed circuit, yes," she said, "but I know a place where the ports can be accessed in relative safety. There's a vehicle hangar near the docks. We… Tsang uses it for repairs, usually just old junk. But even hangers that repair old junk need a network connection. The sectional gate there is busted and they just can't seem to get it fixed. It's full of mechanics and admin staff during the day, but at night, there's only a single guard watching it."

He nodded. "Sounds like our place. You wouldn't mind if we mine some extra information to use as paydata, would you?"

It was pretty likely now that Tsang would never be her employer again, even if she could somehow return to them without bringing the unknown black ops guys down on her. "No, I guess not. Just… make sure none of it traces back to me. I'd… like to have at least something resembling a chance to go back to my old employer."

"Goes without saying."

"Most important thing though," she made sure to emphasize, "is that we get all the data concerning their investigation into the mysterious deaths. That we know exactly what they've found out until now."

He nodded. "The information is the main target, agreed. Five thousand should cut it. It's not risk-free, but nothing we can't handle."

She held out the credstick for him to scan and debit. "Could I… have the stick back when you're done, please? I'm… attached to it." It was bad form to ask for the return of a credstick, usually the things were left with the one receiving the nuyen, who then gave a credstick in return with the appropriate change on it, but this one was… special. "I know, it's an indecent thing to ask, but…"

"That's fine," he said, gently pushing her hand back to her. "I trust you. I know you'll pay us when the job is done." It was as much a vote of confidence as it was a clear reminder not to double-cross them.

"I will, you have my word."

"Good. Since you'll doubtless be coming along, I trust you will respect our relation as client and independent group?"

"Absolutely. I'm firmly aware of my position here. I'm the client, you're the boss." That went without saying. She'd worked with external contractors before, and there were always two rules. "Anything I need, I go through you, and under no circumstance do I issue direct orders to your men. That cover it?"

He smiled. "Good. It's refreshing to see clients who respect protocol. We leave tomorrow evening. One more thing?"

"Mm?"

"I don't care that you're an asanbosam, but you feed on any of my people or infect them and I'll have to suffer the regret of killing you myself. I hope we're clear on this."

Shit, he'd known right away, probably. Well, at least he didn't lash her to a stake and burned her for it. "Believe me, I won't touch your people. I'm… new to this HMHVV thing, and until I know exactly what I can and can't do, I'm giving everyone a wide berth. Promised."

"Good. It's nearly dawn, we should get some sleep. You especially." He held out his hand. "It will be a pleasure to work for you."

Kate shook his hand, but somehow she doubted it.


	3. Third Night

**Third Night**

* * *

Silently, the group of runners got ready to leave for their job. Kate had very little preparing to do, since she simply had no gear to pack. To save her from having to go out completely unarmed, Kaffir had pushed an old, rusty AK-97 in her hands. He'd assured her it would get the job done if need be, but she wasn't so certain of that. The thing looked about ready to fall apart. Some of it was even held together by duct tape. Although, she had to admit, no matter how old the rifle, all it had to do was get the bullet where it needed to go.

Regardless, the idea was to complete the job in total stealth, so the guns would hopefully not be needed. Kaffir had assured her he would do all that he could to make sure the one guard was subdued in a non-lethal fashion, preferably injury-free if possible. There was no reason to kill anyone, and they were after all still Kate's colleagues. Hopefully would be again.

They'd take the subway to the docks, which would deposit them right near the construction side opposite the vehicle hangar, position themselves there and wait for the right opportunity. The rain rattled on the corrugated roof, and here and there, pots captured the water leaking through the roof. Kate hoped this group would use her nuyen to patch the place up a bit. It hurt to see her savings go like this – she'd always hoped to be able to use them for a nice place of her own – but her safety came first now, and safety was only possible with information.

As they prepared, Kaffir explained the different roles of the crew. Most things she'd already deduced on her own, but there were a few new things she learned about the group. Bubbles used to be one of Kaffir's mates back in Africa. He was the resident helicopter gunship technician in his merc outfit, but when the group had been all but annihilated by a rocket attack, they'd teamed up, with Bubbles opting for the rifle as his weapon of choice. With a grin, Kaffir had told her this was the first time he actually came on a job as opposed to staying behind at camp to wash the grease off his hands.

The rain would provide both an advantage and a hindrance. They'd be able to approach more easily, but on the other hand, visibility wouldn't be ideal either. Still, Bubbles had a scope on his rifle, so even in the absence of binoculars, he'd be able to scout the place without too much trouble. She and her colleagues never carried binoculars or thermals, except on squad operations, so the lone guard would have a hard time seeing them coming if they went about it carefully. Most important part of the op would be to patiently wait until the patrol squad had passed by – they patrolled past the hangar at least once per night – and then make their move. Not before or they'd risk the patrol walking in on them, and that was a risk they couldn't take.

They had spoof tickets for the subway, of course. Any Runner worth his salt apparently had those. The subway ride was mostly quiet, and Kate felt the nervous anticipation in the air, even as Kaffir exuded confidence and reassurance. Tweezer smiled at her when their eyes crossed, and Bubbles made an attempt at subtlety when he hinted that there were quite a few ex-corp personnel who joined the ranks of the Shadowrunners when they saw how corrupt and immoral their employers really were. Nice try, beardie, but if there was any chance she could return to Tsang and make an honest living, she'd take it. This short stint into illegality would be the first and only one.

Then, he'd attempted even more subtlety by mentioning most clients were usually slimy and underhanded, and that most of the time, they were ugly men and that this would be a welcome change, but Kate simply replied with a polite smile and left it at that. She had other things on her mind than getting romantically involved with a Dwarf.

They rode the subway, the tracks gently nudging them. The subway was mostly empty, just a few late workers and drifters populating the seats here and there. Good.

A bell sounded, followed by a PA-announcement in Cantonese, Mandarin and then its English translation: _"_ _Next stop, Sham Shui Po docks. Last stop of this line."_

"Off we go," Kaffir grunted. "Time to earn our nuyen."

They emerged into a rainy, dreary landscape of construction sites, dismal hovels and dilapidated apartment buildings interspersed with hangars, loading areas and other kinds of industrial sites which Kate thought to be active suicide encouragers for their employees. She shuddered when she imagined having to work in this grey, miserable place every day. Compared to this soul-crushing, mind-killing bleakness, the polished marble corridors, clean curbs and even the noisy, hot cellar hallways of Tsang corporation were pure heaven. Even her small apartment provided by the corp was snug and comfortable, its claustrophobic size and frugal interior notwithstanding. She'd looked out at this landscape from the vehicle hangar, but she'd never been part of it, never been standing directly in it. Until now, it had always looked like… background. Scenery. An 'other-people' place.

"Katie?" Tweezer's cheery voice roused her from her thoughts. "Which way?"

"Oh. Uh, give me a second to orientate myself." She looked around and saw the typical high crane she'd always noticed during her shifts at the vehicle hangar. The crane with the lit SHUYAN CONSTRUCTION CORPORATION billboard on it. Judging from where they were in relation to it, they had to cut through this truck yard, and then between those two storage hangars. "I think it's this way."

The rain came down hard, causing Bubbles to mutter and complain, his collar pulled tight around his neck. Kaffir walked through the rain like it wasn't there, and everyone else, even Ning, was remarkably silent. Bubbles only belly-ached because people expected it of him, Kate figured.

The place was poorly lit, only a few street lights and construction lamps actually working. It was horrible for the place's atmosphere, but like the rain, it was a big advantage for an infiltration op.

Katie caught up to Kaffir and told him, "We're getting closer now." They were at the foot of a man-high slope, a little asphalted path between two concrete walls, weeds growing in the cracks. At the top of the slope was a long, concrete foundation, rebars sticking out of it. Probably the base for another storage building or something. This was the construction yard she'd spent a few nights looking out over. The one across the street from the vehicle hangar. "See that hangar roof on the far side of this foundation? That's it."

"Alright," he acknowledged.

"I'll uh… let you do your thing."

"Appreciate it." He raised his fist and everyone stopped and kneeled at the same time. Kaffir looked around the group, the rain dripping from his face, and said, "Remember what I taught you, people. There's no need to be nervous or worried. Follow instructions and keep your heads on your shoulders and we'll be fine."

That was… a strange thing to need saying to a group that claimed they were experienced.

"There are jersey barriers ten metres ahead, lining the building site. You take cover behind one each. From there, we'll be able to keep eyes on the guard and the passing patrol without risk. The rain will keep us hidden as long as we don't make noises or stay in cover. I'll take the far left jersey. Frywire, you take the next one, then Mornie, then Tweez. Katie, can you stay close to Tweezer?"

"Absolutely." The medic always needed to be well protected. One of the cardinal rules.

"What about me, boss?" Bubbles asked, scowling at the falling rain.

"See that telescopic loader?" there was a red construction vehicle parked near the jerseys, only a few metres behind the positions they'd be taking. "Take position on the wheel well and once the patrol arrives, use your scope to assess their armaments, exact numbers and especially any possible canine support. Notify immediately if you spot anything resembling a dog."

"You got it."

Kaffir turned to Kate. "I think you'll agree that dogs could ruin our chances of a stealth op very quick. Can we reasonably expect canine support?"

Kate shook her head. "Mmmnot really. Only squad that has K-9 units is Dragon." She chuckled. "Ironically, not mine even though we're called Hound. Or were called. Anyway, Dragon usually doesn't do city patrols."

"Good. In case of canines, we leave the A.O. and return later. Thermals?"

Kate snorted. "God, no. I mean, it's just not a responsible allocation of budget."

He stood up and peered out at the hangar. "You're right, only one guard. I can see his flashlight. It's pretty early so I don't think we've missed the patrol already?"

"I don't know, the hours are – "

"Speak of the devil," Kaffir rumbled. "Patrol coming in. Guard's attention is directed at them. Take positions, go."

Staying low, they ran up the asphalted path and fanned out, ducking behind a jersey each, except for Kate and Tweezer, who shared one. Bubbles, despite his diminutive stature, hoisted himself gracefully and fluidly on top of the loader and kneeled on the wheel well, his form mostly hidden behind the loader's cabin. After a nod from Kaffir, he expanded his sniper rifle and looked through the scope.

All was quiet, only the rain falling down, and very faintly, the voices of the patrol briefly conversing with the guards. A single construction light lit the concrete foundation between them, casting a flickering yellow circle dotted with the shadows cast by the rebars sticking out.

Kaffir and his crew were intently focused on the patrol, peering out over or next to the jerseys. All they had to do was wait until the patrol left. As long as they stayed quiet, they couldn't be discovered.

"Good thing the patrol came so early," Tweezer said, smiling her small tusks bare. Her wet pigtails clung to the sides of her face. Kate's own hair probably looked like a collapsed straw hut right now. "We'll catch a cold from this rain."

Kate remained fixed on the patrol, wiping the rain from her eyes, and muttered absently, "You don't get sick from cold or rain. Only from bacteria and viruses. Thought you of all people would know that."

"I _know_ ," the girl said playfully. "Was a manner of speaking."

Kate looked back at Bubbles, who was squinting attentively through his scope, and what she saw made her heart stop briefly. What the _fuck_ was he doing? "Kaffir!" she hissed at him. " _Kaffir_!"

He turned his head and nudged his chin in the universal 'what?' gesture.

She pointed at Bubbles, then mimicked holding a gun and shooting her finger out of it. God dammit, he was going to blow the whole thing! How could he be so fucking stupid?

Kaffir immediately followed her gaze and when he saw Bubbles, his eyes went wide. "Bubbles, godverdomme! Je moet nie gebruik die mikstraal nie!"

Katie didn't understand the language he spoke, but she knew exactly what he was saying.

"Ben jij bekak? Zet die mikstraal af, jij stomme bliksem!"

Bubbles tilted the gun to its side and now, too, noticed his terrible oversight.

His hand went up to deactivate the laser dot.

"Sniper! Take cover!"

 _No, no, NO!_

The next moment, bright light exploded above them, the flare sent up to illuminate the area, making the jerseys visible clear as day.

"Kaffir, we have to abort!"

Kaffir thought the same. "Fall back to – "

"Flare up! Suppressive fire!"

The next moment, the air thundered with the sounds of assault rifles and light machine guns opening fire. Thankfully none of the bullets penetrated the jerseys, but Kate could hear and feel bits of it getting blown off. Next to her, Tweezer lay huddled on the ground, her legs squirming as she held her hands over her head. Ning and Huojin kept their heads down, the girl's eyes screwed shut and the decker muttering to himself. She heard Kaffir yell orders but couldn't understand a word over the gunfire.

"Cease fire! Watch for enemy movement!"

She looked up to see Bubbles ducking out of his cover and shouldering his rifle.

"Sayuri, countersnipe!"

Oh shit, Sayuri Yokoyama! That meant this was Goat. And Sayuri was their ace sniper, nicknamed (with good reason) 'Slanteye Deadeye', though to her face, the first part was left unsaid. She was insanely good with her rifle and this mechanic with his shoddy pipe gun didn't stand a chance. "Bubbles, take cover!"

" _Everyone_ stay in cover," Kaffir roared. "Stay down." His plan was doubtless to have them make a break for it as soon as he saw an opportunity. It was the least worst plan available now.

Kate saw Bubbles closing one eye and lifting the scope to the other. "Bubbles, _no_!"

There was a single crack from the other side of the street, and an instant later, a simple _clink_ as the Dwarf's scope flew apart, the bullet continuing its trajectory through his skull, ejecting a fan of blood and tissue as it left. The Dwarf slowly toppled and fell off the loader.

"You bastards!" Huojin roared, jumping up from cover and bringing his submachine gun to bear.

"Huojin get down!" she shouted, but the young decker let rip, his weapon stuttering as he emptied the clip, all his bullets wasted due to the inaccuracy of his SMG at longer distances, especially when fired from the hip. A few return shots came his way, but they all impacted on the concrete, except for one, which grazed his side. It was enough incentive for him to dive back behind the jersey.

"Stay down!" Kaffir yelled again. "Stay down! We're up against a superior force, there's no point – "

Suddenly, Ning sprang up from cover and foolishly did the same thing Huojin had done, her weapon's magazine emptying itself in three seconds.

Both Kaffir and Kate shouted at her to get down, but she simply ignored the bullets zipping past her, her face utterly blank and white as a ghost. Kate had seen this face before. It was the paradoxical face of someone who was completely mad with panic, hysterical even, and yet looked icy calm. She ejected the mag and slowly, as if in no rush at all, unhooked a new one from her belt, still standing up, completely exposed.

"Ning, get – "

Another single crack from across the site, and the side of Ning's skull was blown away, her brain matter flying from the torn-away part of her head, splatting on the wet ground and dribbling on the black wool of her turtleneck sweater. She fell over like a sack of grain, her leg slowly kicking.

"Ning! Oh fuck, Ning!"

The girl's dark brown eyes settled on Kate. "You b… bitch… I'm dr… drekking my… my p… this… this is all your…"

Kate could only look on as the Elf died, her legs slowly becoming still.

Tweezer tried to crawl past Kate, but she was quick enough to grab her by her leather jacket. "Alisa! Stay here!"

"B… but I…" the Orc whined through her tears, her eyes, too, wild with panic and shock as she clawed at the wet ground. "I have to…"

"She's _dead_ , Alisa!" Kate snarled at her. "You can't help her! There's no point dying along with – "

"Huojin! Huojin, I _order_ you – "

Kaffir's bellowing had no effect, and Huojin sprang up from cover again, his face contorted with madness. "You killed her! You bastards! Eat this! Eat this!"

Kate saw his fingers clutching a hand grenade. Oh shit, no.

A burst of concentrated fire from several guns tore into the young decker, literally ripping clumps of flesh and leather off him. He shook with the impacts and fell backward, the grenade escaping his grasp and lazily rolling away from him. His hands weakly clawed for it.

"Alisa get down!" Kate shouted, throwing herself on top of the medic. At the same time, she saw Kaffir dive right at the explosive with a roar, and the next moment, a muffled bang sounded. When Kate opened her eyes again, she saw the Boss lying face down, half on top of Huojin, smoke curling up from beneath his body. He lay completely motionless. The shrapnel from the grenade had torn into him, and the few bits that had escaped, had not reached Kate and Alisa, stopped by Ning's corpse, her sweater and blue jeans sheared open. She didn't feel it anymore, Kate told herself. It didn't help.

This time Tweezer did manage to free herself from Kate's hold, scampering across the ground to her boss. "I have to help! I'm a medic! They won't shoot a m – "

Sayuri's rifle cracked again, and a blast of blood exploded from the girl's diaphragm. She let out a surprised "Urk!", her eyes wide in disbelief.

Kate's hands shot out and grabbed the girl by the belt, pulling her back behind the jersey, leaving a smear of blood.

"But… but…" Alisa stammered in her French accent. "They aren't… allowed to…"

Kate's eyes blurred with tears as she cradled the girl's head in her lap. "It's okay. We'll surrender, and they'll give you medical care. We're not done yet, okay?" With one hand, she tossed her AK-97 over the jersey, letting it clatter to the ground in front of it. The universal gesture for surrender. It was what they all should have done.

"Forward, but keep your guard up," the voice of Goat's leader sounded. "Secure them. Sayuri, sniper cover!"

Good, they were coming.

"Sorry Katie," the Orc said with a weak smile. "We should… have been honest… Except for… the boss… This was our first… real…" she let out a gurgling cough. Her eyelids slowly fell closed.

"Alisa, stay here! Stay here, they'll help you!"

"I guess…" the girl said, her voice losing its last power, "… in your eyes, we… wanted to be…"

"Alisa!"

She'd slipped into unconsciousness, but still breathed, slowly. "Stay with me, okay? We'll make it through this!" As loud as she could, she shouted at the rain, "We surrender! Please! Hurry, we need help!"

Footsteps drew nearer, their sounds slowly becoming louder through the rain.

"Please hurry, I promise we won't resist, but my friend needs help!"

She looked up at the visors of the Tsang security helmets. "Please! Help her, please!"

The helmet of the Goat squad leader cocked. "… Brez?"

"Please, Keung, call Jie over," she begged.

"Brez, what the Hell? You mind explaining what – "

"I'll explain everything later," she shouted, her voice breaking, "but please, call Jie!"

Keung hesitated for a moment, but then shouted, "Jie!" beckoning with his arm. "Hurry up, got a suspect down over here, asking for medical!"

More footsteps came, and Jie arrived, shrugging off her backpack and kneeling by them. "Katie? Wh – "

"Hurry, Jie," Kate implored. "She needs help!"

Jie's helmet gave Alisa a long look. "No, Katie. She doesn't. Not anymore."

Kate looked down at Tweezer and saw the girl lying in her lap, her eyes half open and her face slack, the rain running down her skin the only thing that still moved. All she could do was close her eyes and lower her head, but then she felt a tug.

"Let her go, Katie," Jie's voice came gently. "Let her go. We have to take her."

She knew Jie was right. They'd have to take the bodies for their report. She'd never had to do it herself, but she knew how it worked. She let go of the dead Orc. "We'll treat them with the utmost respect," Jie said gently as two of Goat squad lifted Tweezer and hauled her off to the APC, and others did the same with Ning, Huojin, Kaffir and Bubbles. It took three men for the Troll. Everything gone to Hell because of a single laser sight.

Keung was less gentle than Jie, his voice, as always, professional and sterile. "On your feet, Brez. We have to take you in." When she didn't respond fast enough, numb from the shock, Keung simply grabbed her under the arms and hauled her up. Kate let it happen. The cuffs too, as her hands were pulled behind her back and secured.

"Sergeant…" Jie asked quietly. "We should… take decent care of her."

Jie, nicknamed 'the Boobmonster' (though never to her face) because of her hefty female forms, had always been kind and caring for everyone, even enemies. The girl really had a heart of gold. Went with the territory of being a medic, probably. Same for Alisa.

"We will," Keung simply said. "Brzezicki, are you going to make this difficult for us?"

Kate hung her head, the rain running down her face. "No."

"Alright." He spoke into his comlink. "Sayuri, get us an extra APC to move the bodies." Silence as he waited for a reply, then he said to Kate, "I'll let Jie walk you to the APC if you promise not to make an escape attempt or do anything else that might put us in danger."

How could she? Sayuri Yokoyama was still perched on the other side of the street. She wouldn't be able to run two metres before her head got popped like a god damn melon. "I won't… there's no point."

"Come on, Katie," Jie said, putting her arm over her shoulder. "I'll take you to the APC. Get you a soykaf. The detective's office can wait."

Fresh tears clouded Kate's vision. "Thanks… Jie." Before she let the medic take her to the vehicle, Kate stopped and put her head on Jie's shoulder, ignoring how awkward it must look with her hands cuffed. "It… wasn't supposed to go this way. No one was supposed to get hurt. I swear."

"I know, Katie," Jie said. "I believe you."

"Thanks for… being nice to me."

Jie took off her helmet, revealing her kind, round face and her friendly, playful brown eyes. "That's alright. You were one of us. Maybe you still are. As long as you're not a danger, there's no reason not to treat you like a human being." She felt the pressure of Jie's hand on her shoulder. "Come on. Let's go. Get you out of the rain."

She went with Jie to the APC parked a ways down the street. She'd always rode in them as part of a squad. As the good guys. Now she'd be in there as an apprehended suspect. Her heart sank.

When they passed, Sayuri, also with her helmet off, gave her a withering look, her beautiful icy sharp face hard and her ponytail tied tightly behind her head. She looked a lot like Ning. They could have been sisters if not for their different metahumanity.

"You'll… have to sit in the back," Jie said. She was all too aware. 'The back' was a cage used to transport detainees, accessed via the rear hatch of the vehicle. "I can't uncuff you, so you'll have to… you know. Let me pour the soykaf into you. So to speak."

"That's alright," Katie said. "I don't think I'll be able to hold anything down. But it's nice to offer."

Jie swiped her ID over the vehicle's rear badge reader, and the back hatch rose. "Suit yourself." Jie helped her into the cage, and sat her down on one of the two benches set against the side of the APC interior. Silently, she looped a chain around Kate's handcuffs and secured it. "Let me know if there's anything you need."

She got in the shotgun seat, Keung taking the wheel, and four more squad members sitting in the middle section, the last one manning the .50 cal emplacement on top. Sayuri probably drove the other vehicle. She and Keung had the silent understanding that if the squad needed splitting up, Sayuri took the lead over the other half. Made sense, since everyone respected and some outright feared the woman.

The APCs came into motion, one carrying the sole living suspect, the other loaded with the dead bodies of the Shadowrunners. Even though Bubbles and his laser dot had caused the whole thing, Kate still realized that she too had sent these people to their deaths.

She had an entire ride back to Tsang Sec H.Q. to hate herself for it, and then a walk through suspect processing, and an elevator ride to the interrogation chambers to hate herself some more.

Being only a uniformed footman in the organization, Kate had only been on the lower levels – suspect processing, booking, the temporary jails for drunken and rowdy idiots or more dangerous types awaiting their turn for interrogation – and she'd never seen the higher floors, where the detectives did their work. Those had the interrogation chambers, the forensic labs, the matrix servers, and of course offices. She'd heard Tsang Security Criminal Investigation had equipment the cops could only dream of, and as a result, the cops only occupied themselves with the deaths of nobodies, the hopeless cases nobody cared about, while the security divisions of the corps did the actual case-solving. If it was important to the corp in question, of course.

As soon as they were back at HQ, Kate made sure to keep her eyes half-closed and only look down. No one would think twice about it, given what had just happened, and she couldn't, under any circumstance, let anyone see her eyes. If they knew what was wrong with her, there was a good chance they'd shoot her right then and there. Damn it, this was all kinds of fucked up.

Jie and Keung took her to the elevator, still cuffed, and made the lift go to the detective floors right away. They only did that if it was really important. Strange. Kate could see how they'd want to know why one of their own was suddenly captured with a group of Shadowrunners, clearly intent on breaking into their hangar, but to warrant a straight-to-detective transfer…?

One of the investigators waited for them as the elevator opened. This was the first time she actually came to these floors. She'd hoped for a while to make detective, but the Deputy Head of Security had told her in no uncertain terms that she 'didn't match the profile' for detective. Which basically meant she simply wasn't clever enough. Of course, the Deputy Head of Security being the misogynistic queen bitch that she was, it might have meant all sorts of things.

She'd never thought she'd be led in like this, though.

"This the one?" an Elf with a shaved head and a brown three-piece suit asked.

"The very same, detective," Keung merely answered, his hand guiding Kate out of the elevator. "She's all yours." Keung was like that. All formalities, all obedience. He didn't ask why, didn't offer opinions. There was a reason they called him The Fridge. Though, once more, never to his face. Kate wondered what she was called behind her back. Probably nothing flattering, and probably nothing that even mattered. Not much mattered anymore now. She might be safe now – _might_ be – but at best, she'd face dishonourable discharge and a year or two in prison. _At best_. And in her condition, she had no way of surviving prison.

"I'll take it from here," the detective said. "Thank you, sergeant. Corporal."

"Detective," Jie asked carefully, the nerves audible in her voice, even from behind the helmet. "Can you… go easy on her a bit?" Kate had never been terribly well liked in the organization, but she also knew that didn't matter to Jie. The girl was too good for this job.

Kate permitted herself to briefly look up at the Elf to gauge his reaction, but his face remained expressionless. With a nod expressing nothing more than formality, he said, "We'll take good care of her."

The fingers closing around her upper arm told Kate different. "Come on. You can wait in the interview room until the detective assigned to the case arrives."

She didn't have the strength to look back at the elevator as the doors closed. The detective took her along through several corridors, then into a small room with a table, two chairs and several cameras. A comm set stood against one of the walls.

"Sit down and shut up." He pushed her down hard onto one of the chairs, took off the cuffs, yanked her arms out in front of her, cuffed them again, and secured the cuffs to an iron loop in the table. "And before you try, don't talk to me, don't waste your breath. Wait for the detective lieutenant."

He left her there, all along, with nothing but the walls to look at. Kate couldn't tell how long it was. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours. She kept looking at the walls, because if she closed her eyes, she saw Tweezer's dead face. Huojin and Kaffir on top of each other, their organs torn apart by the grenade. Bubbles, shards of his scope still embedded in the hole where his eye had been. Ning, her head half-destroyed, her brain exposed and lying in globs on the concrete. She'd never seen people die before. She'd had the training, she'd seen photos but never… seen it happen. And always unknown people. Criminals, terrorists, thugs. Never people she knew.

Poor guys.

The door clacked open and slammed closed, and Kate saw a face that she hadn't dared hope to see.

"Phillip?"

It was her erstwhile squad leader alright, the emigrated Brit who'd made a blitz career in Tsang Sec, being promoted to sergeant, then lieutenant, and finally detective after only three years. He was a rising, shining star, the golden boy of the force, with the looks to match. There wasn't a single female officer in Tsang Sec who didn't go weak at the knees for him. Well, perhaps Sayuri was above such frivolous emotions, or Helga, the Teutonic She-Wolf of Rooster squad, but all the other girls, including the Boobmonster, couldn't help but swoon and fawn. Kate had already admitted to herself long ago that she had a massive crush on him after finding herself pulling all kinds of manoeuvers to be close to him and get noticed. It had broken her heart when he'd gotten promoted, away from her.

And now, of all people, he had to be the one to see her sitting like this, hands cuffed, blood on the silly walking robot t-shirt Tweezer had loaned to her. "Oh Phillip am I glad to see you," she heard herself breathe.

She risked a look up at him and felt a massive wave of relief when she didn't see the anger or disappointment on his face that she had dreaded. Instead, she saw complete puzzlement. Not ideal, but better than she'd hoped. "Katie…" he began. "Katie, I don't even know where to start…" But then he remembered himself and cleared his throat. "Hold on. We need to do this by the book, Katie. Sorry, but we have to", he scraped his throat again, "get these formalities over with first."

"Wh… what formalities?"

Phillip stood upright, his hands behind his back. "Before this interview begins, it is my duty to inform you that this entire exchange will be recorded both visually and auditorily."

"Uh… yeah, I figured."

"Please state your name for the record."

Huh? Didn't he know who she was? Didn't they all? "Wh… what are you talking about?"

"We have to do this, Katie," he told her, his formal demeanour briefly suspended. "Just… go along. I technically can't talk to you until this is done."

She sighed. "Fine. My name…" it felt weird to say it. Her name would be associated with something entirely different after tonight. "My name is Ekatarina Yulia Brzezicki."

"Nationality?"

"Can you please take these off?"

"Katie. Please. Just answer."

"Polish."

"Countries of residence in chronological order?"

"Come on." This was rotten enough without all this bullshit.

"Katie."

"Poland," She grunted. "Fled with parents to United States of America during the Euro-Russian war. Then emigrated to Hong Kong after passing recruitment for Tsang corporation."

"Date and place of birth?"

"June eleventh, 2028, Krakòw."

"SIN number?"

"PL28-5226T9/66-32."

He sighed. "Alright, that's all we need. Katie, I'm just… going to ask the one and only question on my mind right now." He leaned forward on the desk, and asked, quiet enough for the mics not to pick it up, "Katie. What… The… Bloody… Hell?"

"I… know what it looks like," she whispered back, her head lowered. "But something's going on. Something dirty. I can't… I didn't know what else to do."

"Last we heard from you," he whispered, "you were in an ambulance, on the way to Tsang Medical. Before we lost contact, medical staff on board the ambo said they might as well drive you straight to the morgue."

"That was nice of them."

"Nevermind that," he hissed. "Katie, what happened to you? We lost a lot of people that night, but when I heard you wouldn't even make it back to Medical, I… I felt _terrible_. And now you're here, looking as healthy as a horse, but sitting here in cuffs because you were bonkers enough to attack an entire patrol to get into an insignificant vehicle repair hangar. I don't understand." He paused for a moment. "But before we go on, Katie, I want to say… I'm glad you're not dead. Really."

She was glad to hear it, despite all the crap that had gone down these last nights. "Thanks, that… means a lot. A whole lot."

"What were you doing, Katie?"

"Can I… trust you?"

He gnawed at his lip, stood up straight and looked around the room, undecided. Then he leaned back in, "If it… if it's something that won't result in more people dying or being put in danger."

"No," she said. "I hope the exact opposite."

"Alright." He leaned in even closer and said, "I'm going to briefly turn off this recording equipment. When I put it back on, I need you to act as if I've given you a thrashing you've never experienced in your life. Can you do that?"

"Easily." Of course. It'd be suspicious if he turned off the recording equipment, but his superiors wouldn't mind too much if it was so he could give a suspect a good walloping during an interrogation without nasty consequences.

He walked to the comm gear and flicked the switch. "Alright, tell me, but hurry, I can't leave it dark for long."

"Okay." She quickly rapped at him, "When I was taken back, the ambulance crashed, a… a stupid traffic accident. Those Runners I was with, they hauled me out of there and patched me up. I was badly hurt. The next night, there was a squad of cleaners looking for me. They… killed a few folks just for hiding. Turned out quite a few Tsang security people had gone missing or dead. All kinds of conspiracy blabber about it on the Runners' networks. So I… I hired those Runners to jack into Tsang's network. Because I couldn't just walk back in. I needed to know what their investigation had turned up."

" _My_ investigation," Phillip said grimly. "At least, before I got taken off it."

"What?"

"I was investigating those Tsang security deaths and disappearances. Called bagsy on the case myself because, you know, ex-colleagues. The Orca took me off it because… well, I think it was because I was digging too deep. Finding too much. Whatever it is, Tsang doesn't want it coming out, even though they want to make a show of investigating it. So they assigned Sweaty Palms to it. You don't know him, but he's a corp straw man if ever there was one. They knew he'd make lots of noise and blow lots of hot air but not investigate beyond the obvious."

It hadn't been a mistake to play it carefully. Even though it had turned out all wrong. "You think… Tsang was involved?"

"I don't know," Phillip said, running a hand through his brown hair. "But I do know they have an interest in not letting it come to light. Now listen. You've got about five minutes until the Orca catches on to the fact that the bloody pillock caught trying to attack Tsang was you. And when she finds out, she's going to do two things. First, she's going to take me off this case. And second, she's going to grill you herself."

"Fuck." If there was one thing that could make this night even worse, it was the god damn Orca. "So what _have_ you found out?"

"Like I said, I didn't get a chance to discover too much, but it definitely has to do with the Walled City, and what went down there. Several injured Tsang personnel succumbed on the way to the hospital, and the few who did make it back to medical, died in the hospital shortly thereafter due to 'complications'. It was only three people, so not enough to be sure of foul play, but it's definitely suspicious. And the mysterious disappearances during the last two days have all been Tsang security personnel deployed to the Walled City. Most were killed during the fighting, or the riots, or whatever they call it, but some made it back. Like you. And apart from you, they're all dead or disappeared now."

"That means… if that ambulance hadn't crashed…"

"I think we can be pretty sure of that, yeah. What even happened there?"

"I… don't know," she could only say. "I was just keeping watch somewhere near the asshole of the Walled City, just standing there looking like I knew what I was doing. I have no idea what went on at the heart of the City." Whatever it had been, it had to have been important. The news had given piecemeal and contradictory reports, some pure speculation and fabrication, others plausible, but refuted hours afterward.

His eyes narrowed. "Katie… what's wrong with your eye?"

She should have known that question would come sooner or later. "It's just… from the injuries." She tried to lie.

"Bollocks. If you want me to trust you, you have to trust me as well. That's how this works. Tell me."

She was in custody, and probably not long for this world unless she could figure out how to get out of this place. And to do so, she'd need Phillip on her side. That would mean taking this leap of faith. "Please don't… make a big deal out of this, but… I'm infected."

He frowned, puzzled. "Infected?" His mouth moved without sound, and then he asked, "With what?"

She sighed and looked him in the eye, to show him she was telling the truth. "The Human Meta-Human Vamp – "

"Wait, no. No, no," he interrupted her, recoiling and shaking his head. "No, come on, that's got to be a joke."

"No joke. But… I'm still me. I don't know what this infection does or how it works, but I do know I'm not dangerous or not in anything but complete control of my faculties. I'm the same person you've always known, just… with one… strangely red eye and um… sharper canines."

"When did you even pick that up?" His face turned pensive. "Maybe it wasn't just you. Maybe that's why people are dying? To stop the spread?" He sighed, placing a hand on his brow. "Alright. Look, this isn't something we should deal with now. You seem pretty much unaffected by it, and I've heard that the HMHVV doesn't cause cerebral decay in humans, so I'll trust you on that. We've got enough on our plate without this complicating matters. One thing's for certain. You're my friend and I'm not just handing you over to the Orca. But I really need to turn on this recording equipment right now, or it'll start looking suspicious."

She needed more time, to explain, to ask questions, to plan something, anything, but she knew that tempting fate with the comm equipment would be too dangerous. There had to be another way. "Alright. And thanks."

She prepared to put on a show of being beaten and threatened, but before Phillip could turn the recording equipment back on, the screen on the comm switched on, and Kate saw the one face she dreaded to see. On the screen was a Dwarven woman with jet black curls, except at the temples, where she had curled wings of stark white. This strange hair colour pattern, combined with the rather generous fullness of her figure, had earned her the nickname 'The Orca'. It was the Deputy Head of Tsang Security. But she was the de facto leader of the force, the Head Of spending his time watching trids in his office and cheating on his wife with the receptionist and letting his big fat rotten-tempered deputy do all the work. Fuck, this was bad. The Orca wouldn't bother with hearing her side of the story.

"Ah!" Phillip exclaimed in perfectly feigned cheer. "Madam Ya. Is something the matter?"

"Something's the matter alright, Sewell," the Orca barked, her jowls flapping. The woman simply couldn't speak normally. "Report on your findings thus far."

He cleared his throat, still acting like there wasn't a cloud in the sky, while Kate felt her courage sink lower and lower. With the Orca now involved, there was no way for her to get out. She'd have to hope the fat Dwarf, and by extension Tsang, wasn't the one killing her colleagues. Their own people. For whatever reason. And then there was the HMHVV matter.

"We have a former employee here," Phillip reported happily, "Caught attempting to infiltrate the Sham Shui Po vehicle hangar, for unknown reasons. Accomplices were all killed." He took on a jovial between-you-and-me tone. "By their own stupidity I might add. They were clearly rookies copying what they've seen on the trids. One broke stealth by using a laser dot with his sniper rifle. It looks cute in the trids, but…" He cleared his throat. "Another reloaded her weapon completely out of cover, and one tried to throw a grenade under heavy fire and ended up blowing himself and another guy up."

He snorted in derision and Kate hoped it was feigned. "Bunch of amateurs if you ask me. Well, all except one. Their leader was well known and apparently reasonably respected in the Shadowrunning scene. A Troll, street named Kaffir. Years of experience in the Africas, started a new outfit here. Died by throwing himself on that grenade I mentioned, to save his group. Shame." He sighed. "I'd have preferred to catch him alive."

The Orca flapped her hand. "Spare me your personal commentary. It's one less Trog on the street, that's what matters." Kate wanted to wring her fat, flabby neck. "And this one?"

"Uh…"

"Nevermind." The Orca's face became even more full of despise. "I know that face. What are you doing associating with Runners and trying to infiltrate your own employer? She looked somewhere off screen, tapped a few keys and muttered, "Your service has been adequate but not exceptional during the years you've been employed, and we have nothing in your file that is in any way indicative of criminal behaviour." She frowned. "Apart from the occasional use of company-provided equipment in your apartment for browsing moderately pornographic content, you are a law-abiding citizen and employee." With a sour face, she added, "Almost boringly so."

Kate felt a rush of heat rise to her face as Phillip looked back at her, suppressing a grin but only partially succeeding.

The Orca continued, looking sternly at the other screen. "I really don't see why a completely unremarkable and unexciting – " She broke off, her scowl deepening as her eyes moved past the letters on the other screen. Here it was. This was the moment where she noticed that Kate was one of them. One of the Tsang security officers who'd mysteriously died.

"Sewell," she commanded, her double chin flapping, "You will escort miss Breziki to the elevator. You will take her to floor minus three. There, you will release her into my care." Her dark eyes went to Kate. "This is for your own safety, Ekatarina."

"Ma'am," Phillip tried to argue, "I was just about to – "

"No. Do as I say. Immediately."

Phillip simply couldn't talk his way out of this one, Kate realized it all too well. Still, at least the Orca hadn't told Phillip to shoot her dead on the spot. She had no idea what was supposed to happen on level minus three, but she hoped that whatever it was, it was indeed for her own safety.

"… Yes ma'am."

"This is a matter of utmost importance. I needn't tell you that noncompliance would be very harmful to your career in this organization."

Phillip went back to playing the dutiful company man and with a short nod, said, "Of course ma'am. I'll take care of it right away."

"See to it." With that, the screen darkened.

Phillip sighed and ran a hand across his face. "Alright, Katie. Let's get you up."

"Think she's… sincere about it being for my own good?" Phillip knew the Orca better, Kate had only seen her a few times and it had always been unpleasant. Plus, Phillip was a detective now, supposed to be better at reading people and all.

"Of course she is," he said, looking perfectly confident. "I mean, why would they harm their own people? No, it'll be fine. Come on, let's head to the lift." He opened the lock on the table and took her hands, helping her to her feet. His hands were much warmer than hers, something she figured she better get used to now. Or at least, for as long as her life still lasted.

Phillip silently led her through the hallways of the mostly-abandoned detective floors, and pressed the button on the back elevator, the small restricted one, waiting for it to come up while bouncing up and down on his feet, looking at the ceiling and humming tunelessly. He looked perfectly relaxed, the exact opposite of how Kate felt. Her stomach was a hard ball and her head a maelstrom of questions, scenarios and outcomes.

 _Ding_.

The elevator doors opened and Phillip swiped his ID-badge over the reader. A bunch of floors on the control panel lit up, more than double the floors Kate had access to. Of course.

Still humming, Phillip waited for the elevator doors to close. He didn't press a button for the floor, however. As soon as the doors closed, he said hastily, "Listen to me. There's no mics or cameras here. This is a trap, I'm positive.'

"Wait, but you said…?"

"Mics and cameras everywhere, I just said. I'm telling you, this stinks. I don't know what they're planning, but they have no intention of letting you leave here alive."

She trusted his instincts, but still asked, "What makes you so sure?"

"She would never have called you _miss_ Brzezicki otherwise." He quickly looked around the elevator as if anyone could be hiding there. It was a suspect elevator, probably, and smaller than the ones she'd used to navigate the building. He took a multi-tool out of his trench coat pocket and began undoing the screws that held the metal, hip-high railing to the wooden elevator wall. "Look," he said quickly. "I'm going to tell you exactly what's going to happen."

"Uh, what are you – "

"We don't have much time. Just listen. When the elevator opens, I'm going to make one of the biggest rookie mistakes ever by stepping out first instead of keeping you in front of me." He'd undone one of the screws partially, and moved on to the next one. "When I do, I want you to pull this railing out of the wall, and without hesitating, wallop me a few times with it."

Wait, was he telling her to do something which was very likely to seriously injure him? "Phillip, I can't – "

"Yes, you can," he broke her off, pressing the minus three button to make the elevator begin its descent. "And you will, because once the Orca has a hold of you, you're done for." He started the last screw. "So listen, we don't have much time. You're going to hit me with that railing. You're going to hit me _hard_. If they even suspect I let you go, they might just dispose of me instead, so I'm counting on you to make it look real." He didn't even wait for her to acknowledge. The elevator moved down past floor 23. "Then, you're going to grab my ID-badge from my pocket. You're going to use it to open your handcuffs, then ride the elevator back up to the ground floor. With any luck, you can just walk out before the receptionist realizes something's amiss. And then just… run, I suppose. Anywhere you can, but away from here."

Floor 16.

"But…"

"I know. But it's the only thing I can think of." He took a nervous breath. "Remember, my life depends on it, so don't hold back. I can't claim I was overpowered when all I have to show at Medical are a few bumps and bruises."

She couldn't believe he was asking her to do this. But she didn't have time to be undecided. The elevator went past floor 11. "Alright. I won't be able to say I'm so sorry, but…"

"… I know." His eyes went to the floor number, and then back to her. "There is… one more thing."

"What?"

"There was something I've always regretted not doing before I was transferred." Floor 7. "I'm not going to make that mistake again."

He stepped forward, took hold of her shoulders and pressed his lips on hers. A rush of emotion washed over her, heat flaring up from her belly to her head, and she kissed him back, grabbing his wrist and guiding his hand under her T-shirt, the warmth of his touch sending hot waves across her cold skin. Everything that had happened tonight and the nights before was gone, for one short moment. She'd wanted this for so long, and now, after accepting that it would never happen, it did. Everything else had to stop and wait for them to have this moment. His other hand ran over the short hair on the side of her head and then down the back of her neck. This was Phillip, the heartthrob of every girl in the force, and he was kissing _her_.

Their bodies briefly pressed against each other, his very being so close to hers, and she felt like they were almost _one_ , before he pulled away and his lips slowly came off hers. "I'm… I'm sorry," he stammered, looking at his feet. "Please don't think I'm taking advantage…"

"No," she said, knowing it wasn't the case. This wasn't a quick snog just to cop a feel. "You're not. I just… wish we had more time."

Floor minus 1. Everything was back now. The dead Runners, the virus. The interrogation. The prospect of her death. Everything together in this small, tacky elevator.

"So do I. This doesn't have to be the end."

"I wish I could promise it won't be. I'd give anything to be able to make that promise."

 _Ding_.

"I'm so getting demoted to petty employee thefts for this." Phillip took a quick breath, turned towards the doors as they opened and muttered quietly, "Make it look _real_."

He took a step and Kate closed her eyes, told him how much she was sorry with her mind, then wrapped her fingers around the railing and pulled as hard as she could. The screws came free, splinters flying as they did, and through the blur of her tears, she swung the steel bar over her head, letting out a broken roar.

The railing connected with Phillip's head just as he turned around, striking him hard above the ear, and he staggered. She swung again, horizontally this time, and caught him in the abdomen. This time he did go down. Weeping, Kate dropped the railing, hoping it'd be enough. It'd have to be, because she simply couldn't do any more.

"Damn, Katie…" Phillip slurred as he lay on the ground, blood running down his face. "You… messed up the hair…"

"I'm sorry," she whispered, as quietly as she could, kneeling by him and going through his pockets. At least he could still talk. She snatched the ID from his pocket ("Phillip Sewell, Detective Lieutenant") and tapped it against the link of her handcuffs, causing them to click open and fall to the ground. Footsteps came towards them from the other side of the corridor.

"Go…" Phillip whispered quietly. "They'll be here soon."

After a brief moment of indecision, Kate wiped the tears from her eyes and clicked Phillip's pistol out of its holster. It was a small, low-calibre Fichetti, but it might help in a pinch. She stuffed it in the waistband of her armour pants like an amateur.

"Sure… take everything," Phillip grunted.

"Sorry." The footsteps got louder. She didn't know why she promised, but she did it anyway. "Phillip, when this is over… I'll find you, okay? I promise."

"Good," he mumbled, fighting against unconsciousness. "I expect… tender… loving… gentle lovemaking when… you do."

She grinned through her tears. "Oh, I can't promise it'll be gentle." But she had to go, she had to go _now_. She stood upright and scooted off, back towards the elevator, hammering the button with her palm over and over. After far too many, far too long seconds, the calm _ding_ sounded and the doors opened, and Kate threw herself inside.

Poor Phillip was going to catch holy hell for this, but he'd be alright. After all, Kate had cracked his head and squashed his guts, the worst they could hold him accountable for was letting a suspect he knew and trusted, get the drop on him. He'd be fine, Kate told herself over and over as she waited for the elevator to open at the ground floor.

Once again, it took far too long, but eventually the elevator deposited her on the ground floor, in a corner of the main lobby. The Hell? She'd never known there was an elevator there? When she stepped out of the lift and looked behind her, she realized why: the damn thing's outer doors were smooth, white panels that looked no different from the rest of the lobby wall.

Before the doors could close completely, however, Kate quickly wedged her handcuffs between the gap. Come catch me now, Orca bitch.

Now, to just walk out without arousing suspicion. Not easy in her armoured trousers and bloodied green laser robot shirt. Thankfully, only the receptionist was present, the rest of the white lobby was empty. It was weird to walk here as a fugitive now, when all these times, she'd come in here with her squad, grabbed a soykaf and a bite to eat, and nattered through her breaks. They'd come in through the big sliding glass doors in the front, say hello to the receptionist, then head up one of the two semi-circular stairs that led up to the security offices, and take their break there, before rolling back out on patrol. The bosses didn't like it – they preferred the security peons to steer clear of the lobby – but nobody _really_ cared.

She'd worked both day and night shifts, but this night didn't look similar to her night shifts in any way.

Mei the receptionist stood behind her desk, slowly organizing papers, looking down at the files in front of her. She hadn't noticed Kate yet, with the elevator doors being all but completely silent. Mei had always been friendly enough, if in the typical condescending way all the company people treated the security guys. She had nothing to be condescending about, since everyone knew she spread her legs for the Head of Security on a weekly basis. How a beautiful girl like her could have it off with such an old guy was beyond Kate's understanding, but she had a sneaking suspicion it had something to do with the size of his credstick. His _actual_ credstick, not his metaphorical one. Kate shuddered at the thought.

The glass double doors were only twenty metres further, on the other side of the lobby. She'd casually walk past Mei's desk, say 'hello' as if nothing was going on, and just walk to the door and hope the receptionist wasn't suspicious enough to start tapdancing on the silent alarm button. Then again, even if she managed to hit the alarm, she'd be out before anyone could come and stop her. Mei certainly wouldn't.

She walked on, her boots tapping on the polished white marble tiles. Behind her, the elevator door quietly slid closed against the handcuffs and open again, closed and open again. The front wall of the lobby was almost all glass, and she could see the freedom of the dark night sky through it, a black plane against the stark white lights of Tsang Security's lobby.

Mei noticed her now, and looked over her shoulder at the person passing by her desk, smack in the middle of the lobby. There was a look of suspicion, then recognition, then puzzlement, and finally a sort of grudging acceptance of Kate's dubious appearance.

"Hi, Mei," Kate said, sounding utterly guilty to her own ears.

"Hello, miss… Ekatarina, was it?"

"That's uh… that's right."

The girl frowned, the kind of frown people wore when they wished they were allowed to show their disdain, but had to settle for looking concerned instead. "Are you… alright?"

"Just uh, just peachy," Kate said back, trying to show a winning smile. "Had a rough shift, going to head home to clean up."

"I… see."

She was halfway there, passing the reception desk now. Almost out.

Shit. Descending down the white, curved stairs on the far side of the reception desk were Keung and Jie, each holding a soykaf-to-go in one hand and their helmets under their arms. Fuck. Alright, it got more complicated but all wasn't lost yet.

"Wh… Brez?" Keung lowered his soykaf and his other hand went to his side-arm. Oh fuckfuckfuck. "They… let you out already?"

Damn it! She'd have to think of something. "Uh, yeah. They did. The detective realized I was coerced into helping. Said I could go, for now, but I had to keep myself available." Trying to appear convincing, she added, "I'll… be back here to clean out my locker tomorrow."

"Yeah," Keung said, his posture and face still suspicious. "Can't imagine they'd let you stay on after this." Jie, too, had her hand on the grip of her pistol.

"No, I wish I – "

Sirens blared and a red right began to flash on the ceiling. Keung and Jie realized right away what was going on. Their soykafs fell to the white stone of the stairs and their assault rifles came up. Kate drew Phillip's pistol, looking for a way out. Fuck, the Orca had sounded the alarm! Another brief blare of the siren, and only the red light stayed on.

"Katie, don't!" Jie ordered, her voice both forceful and fearful. "Please."

"Drop the weapon, Brez," Keung barked at her. "Don't be stupid. You've got a Fichetti and we've got Semopals. We're at twenty metres distance. We're wearing body armour and you're not."

"I know," Kate said, her voice trembling, "but I have to get out of here. Please, just let me go, I haven't done anything!"

"We don't make that call," Keung shot back at her. "I'm going to tell you one last time. Drop the weapon."

Mei stood behind her desk, her fearful eyes going back and forth between both sides.

There was only one thing she could do. They were right, even if she managed to get a shot off, even if she managed to hit at twenty metres, those assault rifles would tear through her unarmoured upper body and shred her. She knew Keung wouldn't hesitate, and neither would Jie.

Firing was not an option.

With a desperate dive, she launched herself at the reception desk, the thunder of Keung and Jie's guns pounding at her eardrums. She felt a few bullets whiz past, and heard them impact the floor behind her, but she landed safely on her belly behind the reception desk. Keung and Jie opened fire again, their bullets ricocheting off the marble reception desk and tearing through the wood and paper on top of it.

Kate opened her eyes and saw Mei's black pumps an arm-length in front of her, stomping up and down while the girl had her hands over her ears and her eyes shut, wailing in terror.

This girl was her only chance. Kate's hand shot up, grabbing the girl's skirt and pulling her to the ground. "Get down, you idiot!" she snapped, then hooked her arm around the receptionist's neck and set the muzzle of her pistol below her jaw.

"Cease fire," Keung commanded. "Ekatarina! Stop this! Show hands!"

"We're going to get up now," Kate grunted at the terrified receptionist, "and we're walking out of here. I'm so sorry I have to do this. I promise, if you do what I say, you won't be hurt."

The girl only let out an inarticulate peep in response.

"Come on, get up."

She pulled the girl to her feet, the gun still firmly against the side of her neck. "Listen to me," she said to Keung and Jie, her voice trembling. "Mei and I are going to walk out of here. Lower your weapons."

"Can't do that, Kate," Keung merely said, keeping his assault rifle trained on his former colleague.

"Look," Kate said, inching her way toward the front door. "Just let me go, and no one gets hurt. You're not going to risk an innocent person's life, especially someone the Head of Security is so… fond of." She felt terrible doing this, but there was no other way for her to survive this night.

"Please let me go please please please," Mei begged, tears running down her face and onto Kate's arm.

"Kate…" Keung asked, shaking his head. "What's going on? Why are you doing this? What have you done?" He looked more human right now than he ever had in all the years on the force combined.

"I _don't know_ ," Kate shouted back, making her way to the doors. "They want me dead and _I don't even know why_."

"Look, whatever it is," Jie said, "we can talk about this. Let Mei go. She's got nothing to do with this."

"I know," Kate snapped. "But I have to. I promise I won't hurt her if you let me leave."

"They won't shoot you," a familiar voice came from behind her. "But I will."

Behind her stood the Orca, her side-arm pointed at Kate's back. Damn it the bitch had found another way up. "Let the girl go, or so help me I'll take my chances and take you out."

She couldn't keep her eye on two sides at once. Her head turned back and forth, Keung and Jie clearly trying to secure a clear shot, while the Orca simply stood there, her weapon in one hand. No, no, no! She wasn't going to let it end here. She'd come too far. "Let me go or I'll…" she threatened, provoking more terrified whimpers from the receptionist.

"You'll what?" The Orca asked calmly. "Throw away your one bargaining chip? This won't end well for you, Breziki. Let her go and I might consider taking mercy on you."

Keung was readying to take the shot, it was clear. He'd shoot his former colleague through the head and blow her brains out, and she'd be nothing more than some criminal who tried to take an innocent person hostage and got shot. What she was doing now only reinforced her appearance of guilt towards Keung and Jie. There could be no surrender.

Without thinking, Kate jerked Mei around so she had her opponents at one side each. All weapons shifted, but none fired. And then, without realizing what she did, or what was happening, she pulled Mei's head, and her own, back while her stomach contracted violently and with a loud retching sound, its contents were ejected, puked out in a thin stream of blood and green acid, flying straight at the Orca.

The Dwarven woman pulled the trigger, but her shot cleft the air where Kate and Mei's heads had been, and the spray hit her square in the face. Keung and Jie hadn't fired, and the Orca dropped her side-arm, her clapping her hands over her face. She went to one knee, howling, as smoke curled up between her fingers.

"Kate, what…" Keung stammered, his weapon lowered as he and Jie stood there, flat-footed. "What did you just do?"

Kate kicked the Orca's pistol away, sending it skidding across the tiles as its owner roared in pain on her knees, and turned back to the others. "Let! Me go!" she snarled, her upper lip pulling back, tears in her eyes from the violent regurgitation of acid. She had no idea what had happened, but she knew what she had to 'thank' for it. A drop of acid dripped on the shoulder of Mei's grey skirt suit, eating a small hole in the fabric. The girl just hung in her arms, still whimpering and begging.

"Her teeth, her eyes," Jie said quietly. "She's infected. No wonder they don't want to let her go. How could I miss that?"

Keung was once again fixated on the hostage situation. "Kate, I don't care. I just want everyone to survive this. Don't – "

"No," she barked. "Don't stall me. I'm leaving now. And I'm telling you right now, if I even _suspect_ any of your squadmates anywhere near, _especially_ Sayuri, Mei dies." If they got the sniper in, it would be over for Kate. Sayuri could shoot a fly at a hundred metres.

Jie attempted, "Kate. We can help. Just let us – "

"I _said no_!" She dragged Mei to the double doors. "Lower your weapons."

"Kate, we can't…"

"Yes you can! Lower them and no one gets hurt, I _promise_! No sudden movements."

Jie and Keung exchanged a glance, and the squad leader nodded. Slowly, they put their assault rifles on the ground, the other hand held up to show it was empty.

With the pistol still pressed against Mei's neck, Kate told her hostage, "Don't try to get away, you got that?" She got no response, only the same panicked whimpering, and she briefly let her arm go from around her neck, and slapped down the fire evacuation button. She risked a brief look at the Orca, who seemed in terrible pain but otherwise alive, then pulled her hostage through the doors.

"Please," Mei cried, "Please let me go."

"In a minute," Kate muttered, scanning the surroundings as she dragged her hostage across the streets, mostly deserted at this time of night. She dreaded to see Sayuri sitting in a perch, everywhere she looked, ready to explode her head. But no shot came, and she made it across the street safely. Keung stood on the other side of the glass doors, his weapon back in their hands, talking into his earpiece. Jie sat kneeling by the Orca, who batted her away in agonized fury.

Lights appeared around a corner, and a taxi lazily rolled into view.

"Please, just – "

"Mei, _shut the fuck up_." Tightening her grip on the girl's neck, she pointed her pistol at the taxi's windshield, blocking the cab's path, and quickly shifted the weapon towards her hostage's jaw again. "Open your doors right now, or she dies, and you right after," Kate barked. She couldn't believe what she was saying. Threatening to kill innocent people to save her own life. It was only threats, she promised herself.

The cabbie's face was terrified, and he just held his hands up.

"Don't sit there, open your doors!" Kate shouted again, shooting another look at the Tsang Security building. Her breath stopped when she noticed the shape taking position in an obscured window on the fifth floor. Fucking Sayuri, _fuck_! "Open 'em, _right now_!"

This time the cabbie did have the presence of mind to hit the open button, the passenger side and both back doors swinging upwards.

"Out!" she snarled at the slack-jawed customer in the back seat, who looked just as terrified as the cab driver. "Out! Get out! _Do it!_ "

He crawled out of the back seat on his hands and knees, and Kate roughly dragged him the rest of the way, sending him spilling onto the sidewalk.

Sayuri readied her rifle.

Kate shoved Mei inside and threw herself on top of her. " _Fucking drive! Now!_ "

The cabbie floored it with the doors still open, the cab screeching in the night as it took off, rocketing down the street. Kate heard the crack of Sayuri's rifle, and the headrest of her seat flew apart in a cloud of fabric and stuffing.

"Oh drek, oh drek!" the cabbie whined, almost missing the corner, drifting off the road, and smacking the side of his cab into a light post.

"Keep driving!"

The cab's wheels regained their traction and the vehicle lurched forward again. Sayuri's rifle was only barely audible, but the _thunk_ of the bullet hitting the trunk certainly was.

Then the cab was off into the night, and Tsang Sec HQ disappeared behind corporate high-rises and skyscrapers.

"C… can you… please take the gun off me?" Mei peeped.

Looking back through the windshield, watching Tsang Sec HQ disappear, Kate had forgotten all about the rest of the world, including her hostage. No reason to traumatize the girl further. The gun was only meant to intimidate her would-be apprehenders, not to keep the actual hostage under control. The girl probably couldn't fight her way out of a wet paper bag.

She lowered the weapon and stuck it back in her belt, and Mei burst into fresh tears from the emotional discharge.

"I'm… _really_ sorry about this," Kate tried to say.

"I don't care," Mei said back, her hands over her mouth and nose. "Sorry doesn't fix anything."

"I know. But Mei… they were going to kill me."

"I'm sure there was a good reason for that!" the girl shouted at her. "There certainly is now! I could have been _killed_!"

The cabbie was still hurtling down the roads, even running two red lights. "Hey!" Kate barked at him, giving the transparent plastic separator between them a good bang of her fist. "You can slow down now!" She'd gone through too much to be killed because this guy flipped the damn cab.

"Let me out of the car," Mei said sullenly. "Let me out."

Kate sighed. The girl was right. She was completely innocent, and she'd been through enough. "Pull over here," she said to the driver. When the car came to a stop, she told them both, "I am really, _really_ sorry for this. Please believe me when I say I'm completely innocent."

Mei snorted, still shaking. "Not of this, you aren't."

"I know. Again, I'm sorry. But… if I hadn't done this, I'd have been dead by now. I hope you understand."

The receptionist shook her head. "You can't expect me to understand this, Kate. All I know is someone held a gun to my head and said she'd shoot me if they didn't let her go. You can't possibly expect me to believe that's the way an innocent person would act." She wiped some snot from her upper lip with the back of her hand. The cabbie was completely mute, afraid to say anything at all.

There was nothing left to say. It was nothing less than completely understandable she felt that way. "I understand appearances are against me. I'll get out now, I'm sure this gentleman won't mind bringing you back to Tsang, and I'm sure Tsang won't mind footing the bill." She turned to the cabbie. "Make up a story about how you saved her or something."

"O… okay."

She stepped out of the vehicle, onto the wet sidewalk. She didn't even know where she was, but it didn't matter. It would be dawn soon, and she'd have to find a place to hide from the sun. Because if there was one thing she knew, it was that stepping into the sun when infected with the HMHVV was a very, _very_ bad idea. The wind gently caressed her skin with cold fingers.

"Wait," Mei's voice came from the cab. "Before you go."

"What is it?"

She stuck her head out the door. "Are you really… infected with the virus?"

"It… certainly looks that way."

Mei ducked back into the taxi and there was the sound of paper being torn. She poked her head back out and held out a torn-off page from one of the magazines in the cab's back seat. Something was scribbled in the margin. "To help you understand what you're up against."

Kate took the paper slowly, almost afraid to accept help from the person she'd so terrorized. "Thank you… Mei. I know I don't deserve – "

"No. You don't. But that doesn't change the fact that you need it. You didn't get this from me," Mei warned, her face still streaked with run-out eyeliner, "and you don't ever contact me for more help. I don't ever want to see you or hear from you again, alright?"

That was always a horrible thing to hear, even if it was completely justified. Still, she couldn't blame the girl, not for one second. "I promise."

"Good. I'm not doing this for you, I'm doing this for a victim of HMHVV. Two separate things."

"I completely understand."

"Don't ask how I know this, and don't tell anyone. Do what the paper says, then destroy it."

"Alright. Thank you, Mei."

"Thank me by staying the hell away from me and by not putting other innocent people in danger. I'd wish you good luck, but I don't care what happens to you." Before Kate could reply, she rapped her knuckles on the separator, and the cabbie drove off, the car making a U-turn and heading back to Tsang Sec, leaving her alone on the deserted street.


	4. Fourth Night

**.**

* * *

 **Fourth Night**

* * *

She awoke once more to this benighted existence, all alone in the world. After some roaming, she'd found a good spot to lay her head, a mostly unused electrical substation just outside the district centre, the door to one of the power cabins unlocked. Despite the noise from the transformers, she'd chosen the place as her sleeping site, tying the door's handle to a sturdy wall pipe with electrical cable, and then lying down behind the electrical equipment with a fire blanket draped over her, to minimize risk of accidental discovery during the day.

It had been enough. She'd slept the day away safely, the sun having come and gone while she lay oblivious to the world. It was dark again, and always would be, for her.

She made a mental note of the substation's general location, even though she knew she'd never be able to find it again anyway. Sitting on one of the fallen pylons, she pondered her next move. She felt strange… as if her body was less… connected to her. It felt a bit numb, in a way. As if it wasn't really hers. Not as much as it had been before, anyway. It was a highly discomforting feeling. Perhaps it was the virus. Perhaps it was simply the emotional impacts taking their toll.

And what the hell had happened with the Orca back there? She'd… somehow spat some kind of acidic gunk in her face. That was disgusting. She hoped the fat bitch wasn't too badly hurt, but then asked herself what she was thinking. This was beyond some bloated Dwarf playing petty tyrant in the workplace. The Orca would have killed her.

The acid spit wouldn't be without its uses, but god damn it if it wasn't the most revolting thing ever. It wasn't like gastric acid, it was much, much worse.

She was changing, she knew it. There was no mirror around, but she already knew her eye was probably completely red now, she could feel it somehow. Maybe the other one too. And the canines in her mouth, while previously only sharper than before, had now elongated into actual fangs. The transformation was almost complete, and realizing this struck her with such a massive feeling of hopelessness that she felt she might as well lie down and die.

But as soon as she was aware of the feeling, she also reminded herself that it could have been much worse. In the myths and legends, vampires were always tormented, pitiable creatures, enslaved to their lust for blood, and only able to feel the most painful of emotions. And honestly, she felt pretty much the same as when she was alive. Sure, she felt the loss and loneliness of being a fugitive without a job or friends, but she knew, she felt, that she was still capable of telling a joke and laughing at one, or enjoying a cool breeze during a warm night, or any of the little and less little joys in life. There was no eternal melancholy, no emotional deadness.

But she realized she didn't have time to ruminate on the specifics and sensations that came with her new existence. She could just sit here forever, probably, with Tweezer's robot shirt softly moving in the wind, but as long as she did so, nothing changed, and her former employer could start and continue its manhunt at its leisure. She'd either have to dismantle the entire company by herself, which was of course, totally doable, or simply go somewhere Tsang couldn't reach her.

For now, she had to get a hold of something more useful than just the shirt around her shoulders and the armoured trousers around her ass. Because apart from the puny pistol, this really was the entire extent of her possessions now. Well, that and the credstick in her pocket. Maybe some pocket lint too, if she was lucky.

She could spend the credstick to get a hold of some gear, but that seemed like a bad idea. She'd need everything she could get, and squandering her only nuyen now would be causing even more trouble down the line. Not to mention that the credstick, tied to her SIN, was probably hot as Hell right now.

No, she had to get to her old apartment. She knew the T-1000 would definitely try to reacquire her there, but it was the only thing she could do for now. She didn't have much friends outside the company, which meant almost no friends that could be trusted. And the fates of the unfortunate Runners combined with what she'd had to do to Phillip was bad enough for her to know she couldn't place any more people in danger. She was on her own, and her old apartment would have her personal items, including some light ballistic armour and her home-security IWS shotgun. A change of underwear might be nice too. Also a bra. Modest C's or no, some support was always more comfortable.

There was a chance the place was ransacked, and an almost-certain chance the place was guarded, but she had to risk it. It was strange, but she somehow knew the virus had given her abilities that would help her get inside.

Walking there would be dangerous, but taking any form of public transportation would get her discovered immediately, her SIN popping up on the boards of Tsang Security all over Hong Kong. It wouldn't take them long to predict her destination.

Hey but wait… there was an idea. Her SIN would doubtless send red lights going off, and that would mean they'd know about her general location, except… if they didn't look for the location, but rather the destination. It had to make sense, though. She couldn't fool them with a random place, it had to be logical and plausible. Where could she go if she was a fugitive, if not her own apartment? It had to be a place Tsang couldn't just trash, a place where no one would get killed.

Right. The airport. Every fugitive tried to get on a plane, right? It would be the logical conclusion to draw from Tsang's standpoint. She was near Kowloon Highway, so if she took the metro in Nam Cheong station, not too far from here, it would certainly look like she was trying to get to the airport. Hell, the MTR had recently completed works to allow the Airport Express train to stop there instead of just blasting past, so it should be clear where she was supposedly going. And Tsang and local PD would have a nightmare time searching the place, even at this hour. It was certain to keep them occupied for a good long time. And if the guards stationed at her apartment heard she was at the airport, or was supposed to be there anyway, they'd probably be diverted to there, or at least be much less vigilant.

She looked more than a bit out of place among the commuters who walked in her opposite direction, away from Nam Cheong station, and to their homes. The blood on her shirt made quite a few eyes turn towards her (and even more away from her), but there were no incidents. It was doubtful that Tsang had spread an all points bulletin regarding her, because, well, for whatever reason they wanted her dead, it was definitely something they didn't want to advertise in papers and on television. So there'd be no instant wailing alarm when the ticket computer registered her SIN either. It'd be a silent one. She hoped Tsang would be too eager to catch her to stop and think that she'd know exactly when she'd appear on their monitors. It was a great plan, all it took was for no one to stop, scratch his chin and go, 'hmm, maybe she _wants_ us to think she's headed there'.

Once she'd procured her ticket, she'd hoof it to her old apartment complex, get up there somehow, and grab some stuff for the road. It was a great plan.

Well… it was the best plan she had.

The entrance to Nam Cheong station was ahead, a stairway to the underground, a bright white sign with, obviously, NAM CHEONG STATION and a red downward arrow marking the direction for katabasis. People were vomited out, their ordeal over for today, a lesser amount were being swallowed, only beginning their sentence below ground.

Kate's boots ticked on the moist stone as she went down the stairs. She hadn't gotten off in Nam Cheong before, it wasn't her line, but the stations were usually designed pretty much the same, so she'd find the ticket office without much trouble. She navigated between the yellow pillars to find the office.

"Hello," she said to the girl in the booth, keeping her eyes downcast. "This is… kind of embarrassing, but I forgot my ID. I'm with Tsang corporation and I'd like to use my work metro subscription."

The girl sighed and rolled her eyes. They always did that. It meant they'd have to type in an entire SIN to check if that person actually had a subscription. Kate had one. Everyone at Tsang did. Now, if her employer was dumb, they'd have deactivated her sub by now. If her employer was smart, they'd let her use the metro and snatch her when she came out. She hoped for the second.

"Miss?"

The voice pulled her from her thoughts. "Mm?"

With a frown, the girl repeated, " _Your_ _SIN_ , please?"

"Oh right, sorry. PL28-5226T9/66-32."

"Not so fast," the girl snapped, glaring at her keyboard.

"Papa lima twenty eight… dash five two two… six tango nine…" the metro attendant hit every key Kate named, infuriatingly slowly, and for a minute Kate got nervous, thinking she knew something was up. Still, couldn't look suspicious. "Slash six six… dash three two."

"Mmmmm." The girl was typing now, and she'd begun emitting a low buzzing sound. "Mmmmm." It'd be funny if Kate wasn't so tense. Eventually, she droned, "That's in order." A printer began whining and spat out her ticket. "Keep this on you at all times and present it when asked." She slid the ticket through the slot at the bottom of her booth window.

"Cool, thanks."

"Yeah."

If she hated her job so much, why didn't she just choose something else?

Kate proceeded to the platform, trying not to look too out of place, which was difficult to do while also keeping one's eyes downcast. To make the blood on her shirt look less suspicious, she passed by the toilets and grabbed some bog paper, pushing it against her nose. If someone asked, she could always say she got explosive nosebleeds out of nowhere from time to time.

She had to scan the barcode on her ticket before she could board the train, even if she did not intend to. It had to look real, after all. Standing on the sparsely-populated platform, she waited for the train to arrive. There were trains every few minutes so that wouldn't be a problem. The AsiaWorld-Expo train was hers. It stopped at the airport before ending at the old exposition site.

How her life had turned upside down in just a few days. At the beginning of the week, she'd been just another wage slave, badging in and out, putting in the hours and getting paid at the end of the month. A pretty cushy, pretty secure job if you didn't count the slightly higher chance of suffering a bullet to the face every now and then, and to be honest, until the whole crisis had begun, her job mostly consisted of kicking out drunks and unruly customers and collaring would-be Shadowrunners and petty miscreants – and those were the exciting times. Patrolling the hallways was the bulk of her job, and it was just as exciting as it sounded. And yet, she'd been happy doing it. She had no aspirations of heroism or celebrity, no desire to build an illustrious career, like for example Phillip. She'd been content where she was, just doing an honest and thorough security job, coming home at the end of the shift and watching a few trids, punching bags or faffing about on her computer. People always said a life like hers was unexciting, but she'd been happy with her job, her trids, and her computer games. At work, she got to feel tough in her armoured uniform and her gun (because yes, come on, it was a cool part of the job!), and at home, she had her own worlds to immerse herself in.

Here she was now. Some chick with a bloody shirt standing on a metro platform, pretending to have a nosebleed. And yet, part of her knew she'd get through this. She'd conquer this, whatever it was, and emerge stronger. She'd discover what had happened to her and why, and later, this would all be just bad memories. Sitting down and moping had never been her style, and it wouldn't be now either. She hated it when people said 'fuck that noise', but seriously… fuck that noise.

The announcement for the AsiaWorld-Expo bound train came, first in Cantonese, then Mandarin, then in English. One more minute. Then it was simply a matter of holding up her ticket at the scanner next to the train door, and off she was. She only hoped there weren't spooks close enough to be dispatched straight to the metro station in the minutes it took for her to give her SIN and wait for the train.

Lights appeared at the end of the tunnel, non-metaphorical ones, and the train came to a halt on the platform. The travellers on her platform proceeded towards the train and boarded, but Kate simply scanned her pass and turned back.

"Miss, the train won't wait."

Behind her stood the train conductor, wearing a stern frown.

"No, no, I know," Kate said. "I just… changed my mind."

His frown deepened, as if she'd offended the man personally by not taking his train. "Suit yourself." And without another word, he pulled the lever to close the doors.

Off went the train, and Kate walked briskly back, off the platform, vaulting over the turnstiles and leaving the station back to Nam Cheong street. From there, it was a several-kilometre jog to her apartment, but as she ran, she didn't tire as quickly as before, as if she had some strange vigour she didn't use to have. Of course, it was clear what caused this. The virus taketh away, but it also bestowed new powers on its hosts, it would seem.

Yau Tsim Mong was a good run away, but she reached the district around the time she should have arrived at the airport. Good. The cleaners would be busy for a good while. She lived on the fifth floor of a small (by Hong Kong standards) building leased by Tsang, in a modest apartment near Prince Edward station, a few streets off Nathan Road. She didn't get around in Hong Kong much – you didn't get far if you didn't speak Cantonese, or Mandarin at the least. Even though it was the corps' lingua franca, not many people in the street were impressed by English, and Kate's basic Polish was even more useless, so there really wasn't much reason to mingle with the population, at least not in the first months in Hong Kong. She walked a few streets, then took the metro to work. That was it.

Instead of going down Nathan Road, which was a bit too conspicuous right now even with the still-busy traffic, she left the flashing, multi-coloured neon signs for what they were and approached her old flat from the side streets running parallel to the main road. She saw no one, which was a bit odd but not alarming, and found herself behind a bush in the rundown park opposite her building.

Sure enough, there were two people in front of it, dressed like civilians, but they didn't fool Kate for a second. They each had one hand inside their respective trench coats at all times, and their earwigs were clearly visible when they turned their heads to scan the streets. They'd parked themselves right at the building's entrance, on either side of the sliding double glass doors, looking bored out of their minds. Were they hoping she'd just stroll up to them? Well, Kate figured she might as well be grateful that these two were sloppy enough to give themselves away so stupidly. They definitely weren't professional Cleaners. Probably some kind of shady private subcontractor that called itself 'security' but really should use the name 'thugs for hire' instead.

But how was she going to get to her apartment?

She scanned the building, but she knew this was the only entrance. The two hired guns remained in place, exchanging a few words every once in a while, but no more. There was too much open ground between her and the building, and they were doubtless carrying heavy pistols or submachine guns under their coats. Violence wasn't an option, which Kate didn't really mind. These two were clearly enforcers of dubious moral calibre, but that didn't mean it was okay to kill them. And it also didn't mean it was okay to risk getting shot to shreds by their SMGs.

For a moment, she thought about abandoning her plan and looking for an easier way to get supplies, but the apartment block looked so inviting, and she knew – somehow – that there was a way in. She simply had to trust in her new powers. She was stronger, more determined, hardier and faster now. There was a way, she knew it. She remained where she was for a little bit longer, observing the guards through the foliage. She'd never paid much attention to this badly-maintained little playground-slash-park, but right now, she was glad it was there.

Nope, they weren't budging. Waiting for shift rotation was far too risky, since there was that pesky dawn-thing and she couldn't risk the two thugs being relieved too late. Sneaking back into the alley, she made a circumventing movement around the apartment building and crept up on it via the back. There weren't any goons posted there, because, honestly, there was no way in from there anyway, and these guys didn't look beyond the lengths of their noses anyway.

Looking up at the apartment, she saw the seams in the stonework, the horizontal openings where the wall switched between masonry and slabs of limestone. All good handholds. And despite feeling out of touch with her body, she also felt it was more capable. Not necessarily stronger, but definitely possessing a much higher endurance. From her vantage point in the alley behind her building, she saw the window of her apartment kitchen standing ajar, the way she left it. Good.

It was worth the try. After closing her eyes and taking a breath, she began the climb. She proceeded shakily and slowly at first, probably looking rather ludicrous as she did so, but as she felt her body enduring the effort, she become more confident and efficient, and apart from a few close calls when a foot or hand briefly lost its purchase, she made it to the fifth floor just fine. Haha, losers standing guard at the entrance below!

She pushed the window open and hauled herself through, stumbling hands-first onto the tiled floor in a rather un-elegant fashion.

Her apartment was dark and quiet, and thankfully not ransacked. She wasn't going to risk turning a light on, besides she had enhanced vision anyway, so there was no need. There was nothing worth grabbing in her tiny kitchen apart from the small bit of cash she kept in her cookie jar, unless one counted food-caked dinner plates as a prize, so she pocketed the money and went straight to her bedroom, tiptoeing to minimize any risk of discovery. She felt a small pang of regret, realizing she'd never be able to spend the night here again. She'd lain in bed alone, but it had been nice to feel at home when she snuggled up under the blankets after a tiring shift. No more of that now. Still, she'd leave all this behind us and find herself another home and another bed. Somehow.

Her closet contained the same old crap it always had, her uniforms and civilian clothes, mostly black and blue jeans and nondescript, no-brand t-shirts and pullovers. The sports bag under her bed was still there too, so she dragged it out from there and stuffed two pairs of jeans, four t-shirts and a few pairs of socks in there, as well as two bras and plenty of undies. That was that already. She'd change later, when she was somewhere safe. Again she felt sad when she saw the clothes she'd been leaving behind. They were just threads and fabric, but they were _her_ clothes.

Pushing the melancholy aside, she proceeded to the living room to grab the ballistic vest and shotgun she kept in the padlocked safe. As she passed by the hallway, she could hear radio chatter through the door. Shit, they had a man posted there too. Once she had her equipment, she could skedaddle, much as she wanted to stay here. Her poor little apartment, she'd loved living here and she'd never see it again. As she went to the safe, she saw her computer terminal screen and stopped. She always left her computer on (Tsang paid for the electricity anyway), but on the screen right now wasn't just her desktop, but also a blinking message box.

She took a closer look. KATE, READ THIS, IT'S VERY IMPORTANT, the text box said, with a READ and DISCARD button under it. Maybe it was Phillip trying to reach out. Licking her lips, she let her hand float over her mouse. Who was this? What was this? She hoped to Hell it was a friend as she clicked the READ button.

The screen became black. She was aware of her heart, beating hard in her chest.

Red letters appeared on the screen with a short _bleep_.

THANKS FOR LETTING US KNOW WHERE YOU ARE

Her breath stalled and she was unable to move, her eyes fixed on the screen as another _bleep_ sounded and below the original text, more red letters appeared.

DUMBASS

 _(bleep)_

:-)

A wave of heat washed over her. Shit! Shit! Shiiiiit! Whoever monitored that message would immediately notify the thugs at the door and at the building entrance, and they'd come in to blast her.

She had to get out. Right now! God dammit, god _dammit!_ She should have known it'd be a trap. Fuck, why did she have to go and click that fucking message? Fuck, fuck, fuck.

No time to grab her gun. She made to run for the window, but before she could make it to the hallway, the front door was kicked open, though there was no sound of splintering wood. Damn front door had been unlocked all this time, it really had been a trap. She dived behind her sofa and lay still, listening intently as the goon carefully proceeded to search the apartment. Meanwhile, the two others were doubtlessly running up the stairs or waiting for the lift. Or, if they were smart, splitting up to do both.

She saw his flashlight zipping around the room, across the floor-to-ceiling window she often stood behind to look out over the city. Then across the floor, and away to where she couldn't see. When she closed her eyes, however, she could hear his breathing. Nervous and shallow. Shaky. Good, this wasn't someone who was trained for this. Still, he was probably holding a shotgun or SMG, and one blast or burst from either could end her fugitive state real quick.

If she waited, there'd be three of them, and then she'd definitely get blown full of holes. She carefully peered up from behind the back of the sofa and saw a trench-coated, narrow-framed man with his back to her. It was pitch dark, and she could only see a silhouette, meaning he could see even less than that.

It had to be now. Uncoiling like a spring, she launched herself over the sofa and almost without a sound, body-slammed into the man, bowling him over and sending them both to the ground, smashing into Kate's dinner table and breaking all the plates with a terrible noise. There was a loud _blam_ , and the glass wall was blasted apart into shards, glass raining down on the floor and outside, to the pavement below.

He didn't get a chance to fire a second time, Kate snatching the barrel of the shotgun and whacking it down so hard the goon's face got smacked with the grip even as he was holding it. She heard the thug's nose break with a wet _crunch_. The man let go of the shotgun, and Kate hit him again, in the side of the head.

The shotgun fell where Kate tossed it, slightly elevated, its flashlight falling on Kate's face. In the brief moment her eyes and those of her opponent locked, an urge surfaced inside her, one she knew she'd feel sooner or later. One she'd have to give into if she wanted to live. And if she had to do this, a hired killer would be the least worst victim.

Her would-be killer screamed in terror when he saw Kate's upper lip pull back to reveal the fangs. "Haah! Haaaaah!" he shrieked, kicking and flailing, but nothing he did would stop anything. Kate grabbed him by the short hair at his temple and let her head dive down, her fangs crunching into the man's throat, sweet, warm blood spraying into her mouth.

As time stood still, the most peculiar thing happened. The numbness, the feeling of not being fully connected, vanished almost immediately, and she became aware of every muscle, every tendon, every bone, every vein in her body, almost as if she became reunited with it. The blood didn't invigorate or strengthen her as such, but it made her feel… anchored again. Connected. _Right_.

She jerked her fangs free, throwing her head back, feeling the blood stream down her chin. When she opened her eyes, she saw the goon looking around, dazed, still pinned under her. Good. He was alive. She had to think fast. The other two could be here any second. Perhaps if she could disguise herself somehow. The trench coat might make her pass for one of them at a cursory glance, from behind.

"Take it off," she hissed at him, but the thug only replied with incoherent moaning, his eyes rolling in their sockets. She hoped she hadn't infected him, but what else could she have done? Not feeding would have resulted in disaster eventually, that she knew for certain. She had no time to lose, leaping to her feet and rolling the guy over, pulling the long coat off him. If she made it to the stairs, she could pretend to be… whatever. She'd think of something.

Shrugging the coat on, she reached for the shotgun, but before she could grab it, she heard the elevator come to a stop in the hallway. Damn it! She took hold of the gun's grip, but her enemy held it by the receiver, clinging on for dear life.

"Let go! Let go or I'll – "

"Hallway clear!"

 _Fuck_. This guy was too dazed to be a threat, and the shotgun had emptied both its barrels anyway, so it was no more than a club or an intimidation tool now. Let him hang on to it, what did it matter.

"Vassily! Vassily, you drekhead, sound off!"

Two voices, one male, on female. Probably the two cronies at the front door. They'd come in now, and she couldn't make it to the door or the window. The only thing she could do was hope they'd be hasty and nervous. She threw herself to the ground, making sure her head was concealed behind the sofa, and played dead. In the dark, they just might mistake her for the other guy. And maybe then she'd get a window of opportunity to bolt for the door. Her heart pounded in her chest. If they saw her move, or if she bolted at the wrong time, or even if they decided to check 'him' for vitals, she was a dead woman.

 _Please don't let me die here_ , she thought furiously. _Don't let me get shot by this scum. I don't deserve this._

"Drek, she got the fracking Russian."

"Means she's still around," the female snapped. "Stay on your guard."

Silence as they swept the area with their weapons. She heard the footsteps slowly move past her, towards the kitchen and small dining room, where the other guy lay. If they recognized him, they'd put two and two together – even dumb lowlifes like this – and realize who it was on the ground back there.

She opened her eyes, hoping for a good time to make a run for it. Between the sofa and the wall, she could see the flashlights moving farther away. They'd discover 'the Russian' any moment now. As soon as they made him, she'd have to run. From the very moment they made a noise.

"There! That's her! She's armed!"

 _What? No!_

"Shoot her!"

 _No please no! How did they see me? No, no, no!_

The deafening thunder of guns made the tiny apartment explode, and Kate screwed her eyes shut, unable to do anything but let the bullets and pellets tear through her. There was no pain, no ripping sensation.

Only silence and ringing in her ears.

"Dr… drek, I think… I think we got her."

What? She didn't feel a thing. She was still breathing, still alive.

The female voice breathed, "Yeah. I… think we did."

"Did you… I mean… did you see that, she… went right out the window." The man said, his voice trembling. "Like… like in the trids."

Kate remained where she was. Oh God, they'd shot the wrong person. They'd seen a silhouette in the darkness, holding a weapon, and had opened fire blindly. She was sorry for the Russian, whoever he'd been, but her relief over being alive won out.

"You alright?" the woman asked.

"N… not really. You?"

"No."

"We… we have to check. Confirm the kill."

The woman's voice almost broke. "I'm not… not going down there to… to see…"

"Nicky, we… we were paid to do this. We… have to go and…"

She heard the woman sniff, like she was biting back tears. "I thought… I thought it'd be easier. We… we _killed_ someone, Song." A short silence. "Oh God, I'm gonna be sick."

"We… we knew… stuff like this would be involved, Nicky. We… we gotta suck it up and… do our jobs. We'll get used to it. I heard it… gets easier."

"But… I don't… I can't…"

"I'll do it, just… come with me. You don't have to look."

"Wh… what about the Russian?"

 _Please let them leave me lying here, please let them go check first, please please please._

"Frag him. It was… it was bound to happen sooner or later."

"You're right, he… the guy was fragging crazy."

"Come on."

Kate squeezed her eyes shut, hearing the boots move past her and into the hallway. Oh god, she was going to survive this. But she had to get out before they realized their error and doubled back to finish her off. From the hallway, she heard the man say, "Dispatch, this is Ochre One, target is down, we… are proceeding to confirm." Picking herself up off the ground, she threw off the trench coat and quickly raced to the living room, punching in the key code for her weapons cabinet.

 _Borrrrp!_

The red LED lit up. Shit, she must have been too nervous, punched in the wrong code. Again she tapped it in.

 _Borrrrp!_

She tried one more time.

 _Borrrrp!_

Bastards! Bastards, bastards! Motherfuckers!

She had no time to try and get the cabinet open, so hissing some more swear words, she scooped up her sports bag and ran for the stairs, barrelling down the five floors as fast as she could. Now all she had to do was get out unseen. She threw the door to the ground floor hallway open and made for the exit. She just had to get past these two.

"God _dammit_ ," she heard the man shout when she pressed her hands against the double door. "God dammit, it's the Russian!"

She pulled her hands back from the door. Crap, that voice sounded close, if she ran now, they'd just gun her down, there was too much open space. And this hallway only had one exit.

"Wh… what?"

"We _shot the fragging Russian_!"

Kate listened at the door. Good thing these two were so loud they could probably hear them all the way to China.

"What? How is that even – "

"The body! The body in the apartment! It wasn't the Russian, it was the target! We shot the Russian!"

"I… I don't…"

"Nicky, _we shot the Russian_. That means… maybe it was just a decoy. Maybe she was just playing dead!"

"Oh drek, she better not still be alive."

"We have to assume." A beep sounded. "Dispatch, this is Ochre One! Target is still up! Repeat, target is still up!"

"I'll… I'll get the stairs, you get the elevator."

"Let's move! Go!"

Kate backed away from the door and looked for an escape route, not finding any. Son of a bitch, she hadn't survived this long to get caught now! There was nowhere to go in the hallway, so she just ran back to the stairs, throwing open the door. She thought of taking the stairs a few floors higher and waiting for them to call off the search, but even as nervous and as chaotic as they were now, the two thugs might be clever enough to search the entire building, including the upper floors.

She heard police sirens wail in the distance, coming closer. Fuck, this too! Of course some of the other residents had called the police. How could they not have? Some Russian had just been shotgunned out the damn window!

She had to get out, _fast_. No time for pussyfooting around. She hugged the wall next to the door to the stairs, and when it flew open, she pounced the woman who came through, grabbing the barrel and grip of her submachine gun and jerking it against her throat, strangling her.

The woman let go of the weapon and clawed at Kate's face, making choking noises that sounded unmistakably like pleading. It would have been the safest, most practical choice to just strangle the bitch until her larynx collapsed and she suffocated, but Kate wasn't a killer and she wasn't about to become one. Abruptly, she let go of the SMG's grip and whirled it around by the barrel, the grip cracking against the side of the woman's skull, sending her to the ground.

The girl collapsed, her upper body landing hard on the base of the staircase. She rolled and held her hands in front of her. "Please… don't… don't kill me," she begged, her voice hoarse from the choking she'd just received.

"I won't," Kate said, aiming the SMG at her dumb-looking Orc face. "Not if you tell me all you know, right now. Who hired you?"

"It… It was… I don't know… we just do what they tell us to do."

"Who's they?" she snapped. She didn't have much time, but she needed answers.

" _I don't know_!" the girl screamed, screwing her eyes shut. "I just… I don't handle the contracts, I just do as I'm told, but… I did get a look at the contract, by accident. It had a logo…"

"What logo? Tell me!"

"A… a yellow pagoda type thing."

Fuck. All the other things had already made it pretty clear, but now it was definitely certain. It had been Tsang. Her old employer, trying to kill her. Probably after killing everyone else who'd survived the Walled City. What the Hell had happened there?

"Fuck," she snarled, furious at everything.

The girl's face changed, from fear to outright horror, and she crawled backwards up the stairs, probably not even realizing. "Wh… _what are you_?"

She'd seen the fangs, and only now actually noticed the eye. Her reaction meant she hadn't even been aware of exactly who they'd been hired to ambush and kill. "Not what," she snapped. "Who. And who I am, is an innocent person. Someone they want dead for no reason at all. Someone you would have shot if I hadn't stopped you."

"I'm… I'm sorry, I didn't… We're not supposed to ask questions."

"No, it's easiest that way, isn't it?" she sneered at the Orc girl with the greasy braid. But she realized she couldn't really blame the bitch. Not if her attitude in Tsang sec had always been more or less the same. If they'd asked her to kill someone and told her not to ask questions, she had to admit to herself that she didn't know if she'd be able to choose the high road. It was easy and comforting not having to know.

"Please, just… don't kill me." She held up her hands to shield her face, as if that would help.

It would be easiest, and it would be safest. But no, she was better than these guys. Better than Tsang. "I should, but I won't. On one condition." There was a way to turn this into a good thing. A small one, but a good thing nevertheless. This girl, lying on the sickly yellow tiles of the stairs, was coming off easy, and she better do something in return.

"O… okay… what?"

"You promise me you'll quit this job. Both of you. You find honest, decent work."

"B… but I…"

"No. No buts. The corps are powerful, but they only get to pull this evil shit because we little people help them. And I want you to stop. It's not much, just two people, but it's two less. You know it's the right thing to do, Nicky."

The girl closed her eyes and lowered her head. "Alright. I swear. I'll find another way, and I'll convince Song."

"Good. That's all I – "

"Nicky! Nicky, where are you?" A voice coming from the top of the stairs, skipping with contained panic. "Nicky!" Boots came hammering down the staircase. "Bitch, if you hurt her, then so help me God…!"

"Remember what I said, and what you promised," Kate said quickly. She tapped the Mach22 submachine gun. "I'll be taking this." Her eye fell on the top button of the Orc's khaki shirt. "Oh, and these too," she said with a smirk, sliding the sunglasses out from their hanging spot. "Don't pursue me."

"We won't. Thank you, and I'm sorry."

Song came barrelling down the stairs, and the sirens wailed closer and closer. She didn't have much time left.

"I'm leaving you your life," Kate said, to make sure the point was hammered home, even despite the urgent need to run. "Use it for good things. Both of you." She didn't even await the response, bolting for the door, and running out the hallway, into the street, beating the sirens by mere seconds. The two goons would have to find their own way out.

After putting some distance and some alleyways between her and her former home, she unzipped her sports bag, stuffed the SMG in it and slowed to a walk. On the street corner ahead, there was a small soykaf shop where she could take a break and change clothes. She put on the sunglasses to hide her eyes. Wearing them at night made her look like a complete douchenozzlecanoe, but public perception would have to take a backseat to not getting assailed by Eastern European old men with wide-brimmed hats and crucifixes sewn onto their overcoats.

The man behind the counter rapped something in Cantonese, not even looking up from the soykaf powder bag he was trying to open with a dull knife, and followed with, "Get ya?"

"Uh, one soykaf please," Kate asked quietly. The shop was all but empty, just one native, middle-aged office wageslave typing on his handheld, and one old man nursing a soykaf which had clearly gone cold hours ago. It was anything but a cosy place, the walls tiled with white, the bright fluorescent lights making the place look even colder and more unwelcoming. The lit menu billboard above the counter had had its front removed long ago, leaving only more tubes of fluorescent light. Even his apron was stark white.

"Tall?"

"Uh, no, just… regular."

Now the man did look up, his yellowing eyes half hidden under drooping eyelids. "Sun bothering you?"

She had half a mind to say it wasn't, but the stark fluorescent mood-killing lights of his shitty shop were, but she just settled for, "I've got uh, light kinda makes my eyes hurt."

He only harrumphed with a disdainful face and set about making the soykaf. The machine chugged and squealed, and the beverage looked sludgy and clotted. The smell made her stomach turn, but she knew that that, at least, wasn't the soykaf's fault. "Thanks."

"Five nuyen."

Oh, right, she had to pay for this slop. No matter, she wasn't going to drink it anyway. Her credstick was hot enough to burn through the floor all the way to Seattle, so she just gave him a twenty nuyen bill. Maybe she could get her credstick

"Cash? You pay cash?"

Yeah, dude, she didn't like it any more than he did.

"Sorry, but yeah, I have to."

He sighed. "You pay cash."

"Yes, I do," Kate insisted. "Money is money."

The soykaf wizard swore in Cantonese, probably a horrible insult at her address, but it didn't matter. She had bigger problems than a sludge-brewer who treated customers like a nuisance. And despite his rather limited enthusiasm at having to accept cash, he still snatched the note from her, and slapped a tenner and fiver on the counter.

"Thanks," she muttered. "I can see why this is such a successful establishment." But of course, it was pretty clear what this was. This place wasn't here to make money, it was probably a front for some kind of illegal activity. Triad, most likely. Whatever, it wasn't her concern. Her only concern right now was how conducive to disrobing the bathrooms in this place were.

The place did have a TV, probably more for the soykaf sorcerer than for the customers, but still, seeing as it was there, she took a moment to just watch and treat herself to some peace and quiet. The news was on, in Cantonese of course, reporting about what looked like the seizure of a massive stash of BTL chips and nuyen by the HKPD, then about some old guy being commended for god knew what, shaking hands with people in expensive suits while photo flashes lit him up like a stroboscope. It didn't interest her much at all, but it was nice to just sit down and watch some moving images without feeling hunted and in danger. She was pretty confident the news wouldn't feature an all points bulletin showing her face. Tsang had endeavoured too much to keep it all under wraps. Another report, this one about a fire somewhere near the oil refineries up north.

She sat bolt upright when she saw the yellow Tsang pagoda appear behind the newsreader. The guy tapping on his handheld also turned his attention towards the screen.

"Excuse me?" Kate asked carefully. "Do you speak English? Could you um… what are they saying?"

He held up his hand, but not in an unfriendly fashion, listening intently. Kate waited in tension as the report progressed, then ended. The man nodded and turned back to her, telling her with a noticeable accent, "It's just more of the same. Investigations into the occurrences of the Walled City are turning up a whole lot of nothing, but the mayor has vowed to and promised to, and all those things. The investigation seems to be implicating Tsang Corporation, has been for a while now, with talk of mysterious deaths and disappearances making it look like they have a lot to hide. So Tsang stock, well…" he gave a long whistle, the tone lowering as his finger went down like a crashing aircraft.

"Do they… do they know what happened at the Walled City?"

He shook his head. "Doesn't seem like they do. Not yet at least. But it's shaking the financial market. My employer, Wuxing Corporation, well…" he flashed a winning stock market grin. "Things are looking favourable for us."

"I'll bet." Dammit, not much learned. She'd hoped to get at least some background or new information from the report. "Thanks."

"Sure."

She grabbed her sports bag and proceeded to the bathroom. The place was as dismal as the rest of the establishment, but she had no need for the facilities, all she needed was a private place to change. She locked herself in a stall, making sure the latch was firmly on, then threw off her robot t-shirt, the blood now mostly faded. Even the air in this place felt dirty on her skin. She rummaged in her bag, fished out a bra and clean t-shirt and put them on. Ah, clean clothes. She did the same with her armoured trousers, replacing them with clean, fresh bluejeans. A zipped black hoodie made her outfit complete. It felt so good to wear clean clothes. Only a shower could make it even better.

Now to get rid of the dirty ones. She'd have to lug the armoured trousers along for a while longer, because she might still need them in the future, but the bloody green t-shirt could go. No sense holding on to that.

She held it up, the rim of the collar in her fists, her fingers tense to rip it in half. But her eye fell on the silly cartoon robot and the faded red stains, and tears welled up in her eyes. She hadn't known Tweezer, or any of the Runners, well at all, but she couldn't bring herself to rip up or even ditch the t-shirt. It was hers, and Kate knew Tweezer had loved it, one of the last things that remained of the unfortunate, lovely Orc girl, and of the Runners as a whole. Instead of stuffing it into the trash as torn rags, she just rolled the shirt into a ball and crammed it in her sports bag, wiped her eyes, then added the armour, so the bag was now bulging with stuff, the zipper only barely able to hold.

Her sunglasses back on, she returned to the white-tiled depression factory. It was time to get going, but there was one thing she still had to do tonight. "Excuse me," she asked the handheld guy, "Uh, well, excuse me _again_ …"

"One moment." He tapped more keys, frowning in concentration, then finished with a flowery tap on the enter key. "Yes, miss, how can I help?"

She uncrumpled the magazine paper Mei had given her the day before. "This address… can you tell me where it is?" She knew it was somewhere in this district, the paper said so, but she'd never been here before and had no idea where to go exactly.

The man peered at the crumpled paper, straightening it on the table. Suddenly his eyes lit up. "Ah yes, I see it now. The handwriting is… a bit shaky."

Yeah, that it was.

"But… do you really want to go there?" His face was concerned.

"Wish I didn't have to, but yeah, I do."

"Well… You head down this street, then make a right on Lotus Seed Lane. At the abandoned clothing warehouse, you take a left, then another right, but…"

"Alright. And then?"

He shifted on his stool. "I must warn you, it's… not a very safe neighbourhood," the man said carefully. "Especially not, well…"

"For a cute white girl?" She flashed her most charming smile. Getting a compliment was always nice.

"At night."

"Oh." Whoops. "I'll be fine. I can take care of myself."

He wasn't convinced, but went on regardless. "Well… when you take that right, you'll be in a narrow one-way street. Tiny houses, with a pub on the right side. Called uh… the Red Ox or something. Closed now, though. That's the street you're looking for."

"Cool, thanks," she said with a smile. "I really appreciate it."

"I really feel that I must warn you again. It's not safe." The guy probably meant well, but he wasn't her dad, even though he was old enough to be.

She wanted to answer, but before she could, she was interrupted by the old bum on the other side of the café. "No point warning her," he piped up. "People going to Cromwell Street go there because they have to, and at night because they have to."

A hot flush went through her. What the… did this guy know? How? Because of the address? Or because he could sense…?

"Go on," he rasped. His beard was so thick she couldn't even see his mouth move, only the beard hairs being displaced from the air as he spoke. "Go to Cromwell Street. They'll help you. And you better listen to what they have to say."

"O… kay?" She wasn't comfortable with this, not at all.

"Now get out of here, this is no place for you."

Silence fell, the entire café spending a short moment in suspended animation, until Kate said, "You're right. This is no place for me." She threw her sports bag over her shoulder and after giving the stock market man a muttered "thanks again," she left the place.

The old guy had given her nerves a rattle by identifying her and calling her out in public. Because he had seen what she was, she was certain of it. What was this guy, some old, retired vampire hunter? What he'd said hadn't been friendly at all. It had been clear that he'd meant 'get helped, or else'. Weird.

She decided not to waste time and energy feeling uncomfortable, and started walking in the direction stock market guy had pointed her towards, one hand in her sports bag, on the grip of Nicky whatsherface's SMG. If these streets weren't safe, then it was a good idea to keep a weapon ready. She walked past a small scrap yard, with vehicles piled up behind the chain link fence that surrounded it, a metal drum full of burning trash on the sidewalk. The night was cold, the asphalt glistening with the night's moisture. Refuse littered the streets, some moving with the dismal breeze, some too heavy to be picked up by it. Graffiti tags were everywhere.

Stock market guy had been right, this was a bad neighbourhood. The dead body lying face-down on the other side made that even more apparent, dogs licking at the blood that had soaked into the man's shirt from the holes made by several bullets. The mere fact that these places existed made her sad beyond words.

Three figures stood at the end of the road, where she was supposed to take a right to end up on Cromwell Street. They weren't casually chatting. One of them, a lanky silhouette, stood opposite the two others, his posture showing that he was all but ready to bolt. The other two looked far more confident, and the striking implements in their hands probably gave them cause to.

Kate approached warily, keeping her finger near the SMG's trigger.

"Give, stink man," she heard one of the armed men say. "Credstick. Now, you give."

"But… but I…" the victim stammered, holding his hands out in front of him.

"What's going on here?" Kate asked casually, ready to draw the gun. She saw no firearms on them, so she had the advantage, hopefully. Whatever it was, she wasn't going to stand by and let someone get robbed or worse.

One of the two men laughed. He was wearing a short-sleeved shirt, hanging open, his belly, chest and arms completely tattooed with Chinese symbols, a dragon weaving through them. It was pretty clear who these two were. He said something in Mandarin, which Kate didn't understand, but the tone, his disdainful expression and the last word, which she did know, told her enough. There were no friendly ways to call someone a guǐlǎo.

"Yeah, whatever," she said back, "I don't care what you're doing, just leave this guy alone… uh, whoever he is, żółtek."

The victim, meanwhile, stood looking, completely useless, his knees shaking. Kate saw that he was bald with only a few wispy hairs remaining, and while it was hard to tell in the dark, he seemed to have some kind of big boils or pustules on the side of his face.

The thug who actually spoke English intoned, in a bothered voice, without even deeming her worthy of a glance. "You go away. Not problem for you." He had a big wart on his cheek.

"I'm making it my problem," Kate simply said. "Leave this man alone." If he even was a man.

This time he did look in her direction. "You… you go fuck your thing, chāng fù!" he spat. Kate didn't know what the word meant, but she doubted it was a compliment. "You go… go… burst your chrysanthemums!"

The insult sounded so comical and nonsensical that Kate had to stifle a laugh. The tattooed guy had had enough, and he lifted his improvised weapon, a baseball bat with a circular saw blade bolted to it. He barked at her in Mandarin, shaking his weapon to show he meant business. The one who spoke a little English hefted his machete too, their previous victim all but forgotten.

"No, no, no," Kate moaned. It was her turn to be bored. She let the SMG slide out of her sports bag and said to them, "Don't bring a baseball bat with a buzzsaw tacked on to a firefight, boys."

The two remained where they were, their weapons still raised, their faces full of contained fury.

"Go on," she told them. "Go uh… pop your rhododendrons."

"We see you… we see you next time," Wartface said in his broken English, pointing a furious finger at her. "We remove guts!"

"Oh, you're going to commit seppuku?" Despite the fact that these guys would probably make good on their threat, Kate couldn't help but find the situation amusing.

"No! You! _You!_ We remove guts!"

"It's not like that hasn't happened before. Now keep moving." She'd had just about enough of these two.

They walked away, backwards, all the while trying to make impressive poses and gestures. Wartface threatened her with his machete from far away, while Openshirt flashed his teeth at her and made monkey faces.

She kept the Mach22 trained on them, waiting patiently for them to walk away and round the corner.

When they were gone, the pustule-faced man let out a long, ragged sigh. His skin was a pale, sickly gray, even in the darkness of the alley, and his features were emaciated, like he was starving, and had been for weeks. The odour coming off him was rotten and putrid. "Th… thank you. They would have… broken my legs or, or worse if you hadn't – "

"Yeah, buddy," she broke him off, "there won't always be an awesome chick appearing out of nowhere to save you. Next time guys like these try to rob you, you don't start babbling, you give them your credstick." Triad punks like these wouldn't hesitate to beat someone's skull in, or hack their ribcage open for a few nuyen.

"I would if… if they hadn't taken my credstick last week already. These… scum, they know we're vulnerable. They prey on…" He remembered himself. "No matter. Can't give them what they've already taken."

"Then you run." She sighed and looked around. "I assume you're here for the same thing I am?"

Competing for the trophy of worst liar in the world, the miserable man said, "I… I don't know what you mean, I'm just a – "

"Yeah, yeah," Kate said. She really didn't want to waste too much time in this shitty part of town. "I'm like you, don't worry." She flashed her fangs in a humourless grin. But actually saying it out loud made her realize something terrifying. "I'm uh…" she asked carefully, "not going to become like you, am I?"

"No," he said bitterly. "You've got a different strain. Fortunately for you. But thanks for the compliment."

Kate tried not to show her relief too much. She followed the gaunt creature as he walked into Cromwell Street. It was a narrow alley with trash everywhere. True enough, they passed a closed pub called the Red Ox. "Okay. So uh, I got this address from someone. But I don't know what I can expect?"

"It's an informational group," the pustule man grunted. "For people afflicted with the HMHVV to learn about their condition. What they can do to minimize the effects, and so on." He really did stink terribly, like rotten meat left in the sun all day.

"Oh. Good, because I have a lot of questions."

"You'll get to ask them." That was all he said. The fact that she'd saved her life had taken a backseat to his renewed realization of how repulsive he was. It had been Kate's fault, really.

"Hey uh, I'm sorry for being so inconsiderate, I didn't mean – "

"Yes, you did," he rasped. "I disgust you, and you hoped you wouldn't be as disgusting as I am. It's not your fault. All you vamps are like this. Selfish. Glad they're not us."

"That's not – "

He stopped walking. "I suppose it's comforting for you. Things could always be worse, like that? Well, I'm glad to have put you at ease with by being the kind of worse you needed."

"Look, hey, I was just – "

"I used to be a laboratory technician," he half-shouted at her. "I had a university degree, a high-paying job, a wife, an apartment near Crown Road. I wasn't always this abomination!"

Geez, she'd really been an idiot. "I know," she said, trying to calm him. "I didn't… I mean, I never saw you as just… like this."

"Yes, well. I'm sure the virus is a terrible trial for you too. The tragedy of being a normal-looking white girl with some dental abnormalities and a slightly sensitive skin." He resumed walking. "We're nearly there."

This was beyond fixing, and she simply followed the foul-smelling corpse-man as he walked to a cellar grill and lifted it up. "Down here."

She preceded him down the brick stairs, finding herself in a dank cellar. A stink hung in the place, her companion's putrid odour magnified tenfold. Several figures were sitting in a circle, on folded metal chairs, lit by a few candles in the centre. Some were hunched, emaciated creatures, others passed for fairly normal. Humans only, though. She couldn't see a single troll, orc or elf. A few heads turned, others didn't move, most just staring at the candles in the circle.

"Take a seat," the former lab tech croaked at her. "Not too close to me, I stink."

"Hey, come on."

He said nothing, just shuffled to one of the empty chairs and sat, plucking at the pustules on his face. She did the same, apart from the pustule-plucking, and sat down between two people who still looked human. Immediately the lab tech threw her an accusatory glance, as if to tell her he knew she was going to choose that seat.

"So uh," one of the human-looking guys asked, leaning back in his chair. He had a beard and receding hairline. His English was accented, but understandable. "When does this start, yeah?"

"Few more minutes," one of the more badly afflicted women said. It looked to be a girl in her late teens, with blue hair shaved to a stubble on one side. She wore heavy-rimmed glasses. "She'll be here in a second."

There were more uncomfortable moments of silence as everyone just watched the candles burn. Kate had no idea what to say either, so she just joined in the quiet. Nobody seemed to know each other, at least not very well, even though lab tech and blue hair had apparently been here before. She noticed that none of the other infected had ocular discolouration. Strange. She'd figured they'd have red eyes, or at least one, like her, but they all seemed to have perfectly normal-looking peepers. Perhaps it was best to keep her sunglasses on for the time being.

Minutes passed.

"There she is."

All heads turned as the long-awaited 'she' arrived, descending the brick stairs quietly before letting the grate fall back into place. Heels ticked subtly on the stone as she approached, and one of the more unfortunate sufferers of the virus immediately stood up to cede his place, but the woman shook her head, briefly placed a hand on his shoulder to guide him back onto his chair, and took a wooden crate from the corner, quickly sweeping the dust and filth off to sit down on it. She was clearly a native, though her hair seemed more dark brown than the typical jet black of the people here. It was cut in a fringe at the front, with two strands left long, red streaks dyed in them. They went all the way down to her hips. She wore a green dress with strange markings on the collar, cuffs and hem. She was pretty enough, with pouty lips (Kate had been told men loved those), although she looked like she hadn't slept in days.

"A few new members today," she said in a soft voice, with cultured and flawless English. "Welcome. I'm sorry it's been so long since the last meeting, I've been… very busy."

"That's alright, Lăoshī," the girl with the blue hair rasped. "We know you're doing this on top of your normal job. Thank you again for doing this for us."

"Please," the woman said with a smile. "I'm just a friend, not your teacher." Kate looked intently as she spoke, and saw no elongated eye teeth. Either she had a different strain, or she simply wasn't one of the infected like them. "So. Before we introduce ourselves," the woman announced, "it's important for new people to know that we don't use real names. There are those who would destroy you, and we cannot risk knowing each other's true identities. Same goes for who told you about this place. They must stay anonymous."

Made sense, Kate supposed. And this whole candle-lit circle thing had enough of a secret cult meeting vibe already, so why not go all the way.

"Since we have a few new faces, I'll start the information session, with the basics, so you can all understand what's happened to you, and what you're up against. Feel free to ask questions whenever you like. But first, let's all introduce ourselves. Remember, choose an alias or a nickname."

Every member of the circle briefly got the floor, saying their 'names' and what had happened to them. Lab tech had chosen the nickname 'Erlenmeyer'. He'd been called to test tissues during a police investigation and had been infected with the virus when part of his examination subject had ruptured in his face. Blue hair girl called herself 'Blogger' and had been snatched after returning home from her coffee shop. She told her story with dignity, but Kate could see the relived pain on her ruined face as she spoke of the creature that had torn her left hand of with its teeth and passed the infection to her. She equated it to rape, and Kate figured that wasn't all that unreasonable. Impatient beard man just made up the alias 'Chang' on the spot and said he'd been approached in a bar by a not unattractive black girl, had imparted to be not unattracted to dark skin, and then made the correct assumption that no one needed to be told how it had gone afterward.

It was Kate's turn to introduce herself. "Another new face," the group leader said with a warm smile. "No need to hide your eyes, dear. We're all equal here. No secrets, no shame, no opacity."

"I um… I'd like to keep them on for now, if that's alright with you."

"Of course," the woman, apparently nicknamed Lăoshī, immediately said. "If it makes you feel more comfortable. Now, please, the group would love to know about you."

"Right." She rose, and looked around the circle of faces, some more disinterested than others. "I'll uh… I guess you can call me… I don't know… Kotek, I s'pose." It was what her mother had called her when she was little. "I uh… I don't know how I got infected. All I know is, I woke up in a crashed ambulance, with some bad injuries. I don't know how it happened. I can't remember anything about the accident."

The woman with the fringe frowned, holding a finger to her lips. "That's strange. Amnesia typically isn't an effect of HMHVV infection, or any mutation I'm aware of."

"It's quite common," one of the others chimed in cautiously, "for a survivor of a traumatic accident, like a car crash, to not remember anything about the actual event." He apologized quickly, with an embarrassed smile. "Sorry, I'm Bow Tie." She didn't have to ask why he'd chosen that name. "Male nurse." He cleared his throat and explained to the group leader, "I don't think it's a side effect of the infection, but rather of the accident itself."

"Ah," Lăoshī nodded. "Yes, I've heard of that happen. That's unfortunate, but of course, life's ahead of us, not behind. And yes, I deliberately say 'life', because you all still have one, despite what you may think."

The round of introductions was completed, everyone sharing with the group what had happened to them and how. Some stories were crushingly banal, others were tragic, and only a single one was actually humorous. Lăoshī, or whatever her real name was, introduced herself last. She was uninfected, and had formed this group as a sort of safe haven for HMHVV patients, to inform them, guide them, and to provide a healthy environment for them to gather and share their burden. And in fact, she wasn't wrong. The place did feel safe somehow. It was a tragic stinkhole lit by sputtering candles, but everyone here had something that bound them. It was almost… cosy, in a way.

"The human meta-human vampiric virus," Lăoshī explained, "is just that. A virus. It's not a curse, not a punishment, not a deformity. None of you were infected because you were evil, unclean, unworthy or inferior. It does not make you a zombie, or an animal, or a monster, or even a bad person. The virus does not discriminate, it does not choose its victims. It's both sad and comforting at the same time, but you were all infected by pure coincidence. Because you were at the wrong place, at the wrong time."

Kate didn't have a hard time believing that, but she was fully aware that it might not be so easy for the more deformed people in the group.

One of the new people raised his hand. Impatient Beard Man. Kate preferred thinking of him as that, rather than the gruesomely uninspired 'Chang'. "Why are there only humans here? Can't the virus infect other races? I mean, it _is_ called the 'Human Meta-Human Virus', right?"

Lăoshī nodded. "Good question. No, the virus does not infect only humans. I wish it did. However, with some very, very rare exceptions, the only ones who remain sane after infection are we, humanity. All other meta-human races transform, not just physically." She looked at the floor. "They… are lost to us. Become monsters."

Silence fell for a few moments, after which another person, a girl who looked no older than fifteen and had introduced herself as 'Selene', raised her hand. "Why are… and I'm so sorry to have to say this, but… why are some of us… well…"

Lăoshī nodded, thankfully sparing the girl, and everyone else, the end of the question. "There are several strains of the Human Meta-Human Vampiric Virus. Most of you have the, more common, Harz-Greenbaum strain." Kate had heard that name before. Tweezer had called her infection by that name too. "It's the… least destructive variant."

"Like… the vampires?" Impatient Beard Man asked.

Lăoshī nodded again. "I'd prefer it if we didn't use the terms 'vampires' and 'ghouls', but yes. Their symptoms most closely resemble those of the vampires of folklore. The other type…" she sighed, giving Blogger a sad look, "is the Krieger strain. Where the Harz-Greenbaum variant is already aggressive in its rewriting of its victim's genetic code, Krieger is such a deleterious virus that it causes… even more dramatic changes. There are more strains, like Brückner-Langer, Jarka-Criscione, as well as some other minor variants, but I've never seen those here, with the exception of one Brückner-Langer patient a few years ago."

The teenage girl asked, "So… the uh, people infected with Harts… thing drink blood, and the ones with… the other type…?"

"They find themselves forced to consume human flesh."

All the ghouls looked away, while the other new members shifted in their seats. Kate included. Drinking blood was bad enough, but being driven to cannibalism? Damn.

"But mind, and this is important," Lăoshī went on, "it's not the drinking of blood, or the eating of flesh that sustains the Human Meta-Human Vampiric Virus patient."

"Uh," Kate said, figuring that if this was a safe place to talk, it also was a safe place to confess their sins. "I… drank someone's blood tonight. I kinda hate myself for it, but I knew I had to. And it really did make me feel alive again. So…?"

Lăoshī smiled patiently, "That's what I'm getting to." Blogger opened her mouth, but Lăoshī gently silenced her. "No cheating, Blogger. Kotek, the consumption of human organic material is necessary, but it provides no sustenance in a biological sense. What you need to survive is… something that isn't easily described." She sighed, thinking, then asked Kate, "How did you feel when you nourished yourself? Be as specific, as poetic, as dramatic as you can, no need to be embarrassed about your choice of words."

"I… it's hard to describe."

"Yes. It is, but it's important. Go ahead, there is no wrong answer."

She tried to recall the feeling, but couldn't, not really. She felt normal now, and it was hard to remember how it had felt before she'd fed. She'd have to recall the memory of the memory. "I remember experiencing some kind of… numbness."

Lăoshī's smile widened. "Yes, good, go on."

"And when I fed, it was gone again. It was… as if my body didn't belong to me. Not entirely anyway. Like it was… slowly drifting away from me."

"Yes, that's a good way to describe it." Several group members nodded, indicating they'd felt the same thing too. "Blogger?"

The blue-haired girl was eager to show how well she'd paid attention during the sessions, sitting up straight, her blue hair flapping against the sores on the side of her head. Kate had to admire her dedication to shave her scalp with all those weeping growths there. "What matters isn't the amount of biological material consumed but rather the emotional intensity of the transfer." She droned it like she was reciting the answer to an oral exam question, not pausing or taking a breath between sentences. "If the victim is in a state of high emotional activity more essence will be transferred usually this psychic intensity is induced through overwhelming fear or terror but there are also other ways to cause this kind of high emotional flare such as but not limited to extreme pain rage hatred panic confusion or profound grief but also less obvious but equally conducive emotions like lust overwhelming joy or debilitating hopelessness and even and perhaps especially intense true love the object of the biological transfer through high-level emotional," now she had to stop and take a breath, but she went right on yapping, "activity is to provide a conductor for essence to be sheared from the victim and consumed by the infected individual this essence – "

"Yes, alright," Lăoshī stopped her, laughing at the girl's zeal. "You're going to explode your tongue, going so fast, and I think you've already lost half of the new people, judging from the confused faces."

"So, what," Impatient Beard Guy asked, "it doesn't matter how much blood we drink, but how jacked up our victim is?"

"Yes," she said, her face turning serious again. "The blood drinking is a ritual, and necessary, but what you really feed on is essence. And that essence is released when the biological transfer is accompanied by an emotional discharge, the more intense the distance, the better the transfer."

"So basically that means…" Teenage Girl asked, "… there's no point to, like… make a vow to only feed on willing people?" she sounded intensely sad to ask it. "Like, I can't just find a friend who gives it to me of his own free will?"

"In all cases but the _extremely_ rare…" Lăoshī said gravely, "… no."

"Seems the virus doesn't want this to be easy," Bow Tie said, his voice bitter. "So much for trying not to harm people."

Teenage agreed with a hopeless sigh.

"All I can say," Lăoshī told them, "is that you still have _some_ kind of choice. You'll have to feed on innocents, no getting around that. But you can choose who, and you can choose how. The easy way is to just pick anyone who's vulnerable and alone, and terrify them to the verge of a heart attack. In fact, this is what most of the less morally inhibited infected do. All I'm hoping you'll do is pick your victims, and not scare them any more than necessary."

"So let me get this straight," one of the 'ghouls' asked. "This virus isn't content with just turning us into cannibals? We have to terrify people to survive? I mean, is this virus just trying to be as much of a dick as possible?"

"The virus isn't a conscious entity, even though it might sometimes appear so. It's important to always keep this in mind," Lăoshī said. "But yes, this is the sad truth. Essence is only released in a state of extreme emotional tension. And turn it any way you want, but you need this essence to survive." She corrected herself. "No. Not survive. To…" she went silent for a while. "I suppose I should explain what essence is, first. Do any of you have an idea?" With a smile, she added, "The new people, not the regulars."

Bowtie raised his hand. "I did my internship at a cyber-clinic, and the surgeons there kept talking about essence, saying too many cyber implants would… I don't know, drain it or dissipate it. They talked about it like it was… a soul?"

"Mmm," Lăoshī said, rocking her head. "Not entirely. A lot of people simply equate it with the soul, and for many intents and purposes, you can see it as such, but well… let me illustrate. In the case of cyberware, for instance, essence diminishes proportionately to the amount of synthetic body parts used. The more the body trades its natural form for a mechanical one, the less the soul feels connected to the body, because it no longer recognizes the cyberware as part of it. It sees it as different, as… alien. This is the essence we speak about. It's not the soul itself, but rather what keeps your mind attached to your body."

So that's where that feeling of detachment came from, that feeling of her body not being hers. That strange numbness, not of the body but of the soul. She'd been losing this essence thing, and her soul had been slowly disconnecting from her body. She shivered at the thought, it was a gruesome thing to think about.

Lăoshī had picked up on it. "I see this makes you uncomfortable. It should, sadly."

Her voice suddenly hoarse, Kate said, "So if your essence is gone completely… does that mean you die?"

She saw Blogger looking away. "If only."

"Yes," Lăoshī echoed. "If only. What happens is similar to the effect of too much essence being eroded by cyberware. Bow Tie, have those doctors at the clinic ever mentioned what happened to people who, as they love to say, 'chrome themselves up' too much?"

The man became very quiet. "I'm… afraid to mention the word."

"Please, do it anyway. The truth is hard, but it's important that we all know the dangers."

He cleared his throat and leaned forward, the candles casting an eerie orange glow on his round face. "They sometimes used the word… cyber zombie."

Silence fell.

"Yes. That's the word most often used, and it's… painfully accurate. To answer your question, Kotek, there are many different reasons for essence loss, but the result is never death. When a person loses or surrenders all his or her essence, the soul is… separated from the body. Forever. The body still lives, in a way, but the soul has left it. Cyber zombies are a particularly gruesome example, the essence loss stemming from the soul no longer being able to recognize the body. Cyber zombies become indiscriminate killing machines, or living automata if worked by a rigger. Conscious but mindless. It's… a horrible fate, to say the least."

Teenage girl raised her hand. "Uh, with all due respect, are you here to educate us or terrify us?" Kate, and presumably everyone else, wondered the same thing. Being informative was good, but she was getting a little carried away in her desire to educate.

Lăoshī had to laugh at that. "Yes, that's a valid question, I do apologize. Cyber zombification will be the least of your worries, I imagine. There are more processes, not all as gruesome. For example, mages extremely absorbed in their work might find their soul slowly drifting away and might one day see it completely detach to wander the astral plane alone, leaving their bodies asleep forever. And in your cases… well, you lose essence because the virus consumes it. Or better, because it creates tears through which it slowly but surely leaks out."

Bow Tie chimed in, "Tears. That makes sense."

"Why do you say that?" Lăoshī asked, intrigued.

"Well," he explained, "I knew something was wrong with me from the start, I mean, I'm a medical professional, after all, but I didn't know what. So I did a decidedly unscientific thing and went to a friend to get my aura read. He said it was… well, I don't remember the words he used, but – "

"Frayed and blackened?" Kate interrupted him. She remembered Ning's reading all too well.

His eyes lit up. "Yes! Those weren't the exact words, but something along those lines. So what he saw were probably those tears?"

Lăoshī nodded. "That's the scientifically accepted theory, yes. You need to take other, uninfected people's essence to sustain yourselves. It's no different than an uninfected person eating the meat of a cow, but many will call it monstrous and call you abominations to be destroyed."

"Typical humans," Blogger remarked. "Just fine with murdering innocent animals, but when they're the prey, suddenly it's unnatural and abominable."

"Well," Kate said cautiously, "You can't blame them for not being a big fan."

The blue-haired girl just rolled her eyes as if Kate had said the stupidest thing in the world. "Ugh."

"It's natural for metahumanity to fear the infected," Lăoshī said gently. "But they should realize you are victims of a virus, not monsters preying on them for pleasure or enjoyment."

Teenage raised her hand again. "So what about infection?"

"Ah yes. The other unfortunate consequence of feeding." Lăoshī took a moment to think and sighed. "The truth is, it's a bit of a lottery. Infectivity is significant but nowhere near guaranteed. We don't know exactly what aids or hampers transmission of the virus, but weakened, injured or already ill victims are definitely more likely to suffer infection. What we do know is that the virus is dependent on host cells to survive, and that it is able to pass through mucous membranes."

Bow Tie let out a grunt. "So that means it replicates in host lymphocytes. And if it can pass through mucous membranes, it can transfer via haematophagia."

With a mischievous grin, Teenage said, "Can I be a horrible cliché and say, 'In English, doc'?"

Bow Tie had to chuckle at that. "Right, of course. Basically, and correct me if I'm wrong, Lăoshī, but it means that the virus multiplies in the blood. Since it is capable of passing through mucous membranes, it's also contained in the saliva." The conclusion didn't need to be said, but he did it anyway. "Meaning bites, to drink blood or eat flesh, are a wonderful means of transmission."

Lăoshī agreed. "The best."

"And I assume there's no cure?" Bowtie asked, even though they all knew that if there was, it would have been administered or at least mentioned by now.

He only got a head shake in response.

Teenage grinned. "Maybe someone's popping all the blue research bubbles." That got a chuckle out of Kate, but judging from the blank stares of everyone else, she was the only one who got it.

"So that means", Impatient Beard Man asked, "that we can't survive without infecting others?"

"That's… exactly what it means."

"Well," he scoffed. "Then the best thing for all of us to do is kill ourselves right here!"

"I doubt you'll find everyone here willing to do that," Lăoshī said with a patient smile. "Not should you, or I, or any of us, try to convince them." She spread her hands. "I wish there was some way to give you good news, but this is the truth, people. None of us can force you to manage your symptoms ethically, but at least now you know exactly what the hows and whys of it are." She corrected herself. "Well, sadly not the whys. We'll never know those."

Impatient Beard Man didn't give up. "So, what, we should kill our victims after feeding to make sure they don't get infected? Spare them the so-called 'fate worse than death'?"

"I don't know, man," one of the vampires who had thus far been silent, a young guy who slouched in his chair, wearing a brown leather jacket finally spoke. "I'm thinking, this whole woe-is-me shit is pretty drama whorish. I mean, sure, we've got some kind of crazy disease, and we gotta feed, and our skin's got UV protection factor negative a thousand, but apart from that, we can still live pretty much normally, right? Fate worse than death, pft."

Kate was inclined to agree. The feeding and infecting had serious moral implications, but apart from that, she felt pretty good. Chronically cold, sure, and her heart didn't beat as confidently as she'd like it to, but those were small things, in the end. If she had to make the choice between letting someone live as an infected, or killing them outright, there was really no good reason to choose the latter.

Teenage also shared the sentiment. "He's right. I mean, this isn't _that_ bad. Sucks that I won't get to go to the beaches of the Dominican for my twentieth birthday, but I mean, we've still got a lot to live for, right?"

Blogger abruptly veered up. "Speak for yourselves, you strainist assholes," she shouted. "It's easy for you, _Harz-Greenbaums_ , to sit there and claim there isn't a problem." The others, including Lăoshī, let her rage for a moment. She clearly needed to let it out. "Meanwhile you're sitting there with your smooth skins and your little pointy fangs and your vampnormative bullshit, while we have to live like this. You can't imagine what this is like, so, like, check your vamp privilege!"

Lab tech backed her up. "You've all got a lot of fucking nerve, sitting there and saying it's 'not all that bad'."

"Whoa," Teenage said quietly. "We're just trying to stay positive here."

"Yeah, well," Blogger spat, "First show some empathy for the less privileged. Then you can worry about being positive."

Teenage's understanding seemed at an end, her adorable cheerful face hardening. "I'll worry about whatever the fuck I like, whenever the fuck I like, thanks."

Blogger's eyes flashed. "Did you just tone police me?"

"Easy," Lăoshī defused the situation. "This is hard for all of you."

"Yeah well," Leather Jacket Rebel said slowly, getting up from his chair, "I'm not gonna sit and listen to the rest of this professional victim bullshit. I'm gonna spend my last money on a bike and make the best of it. You know, play with the hand I'm dealt instead of complaining to the dealer. Thanks for all the info, Lăoshī, or whatever your real name is." He clicked his tongue and gave her two gun-fingers. "You're a peach, I mean it. Thanks." With that, he slung his jacket over his shoulder and walked out.

Lăoshī let him go and put her hand on Blogger's shoulder. "Hey. I know it's not easy for you guys, but… you have to understand, that asking them to feel miserable in your place is unfair. I know how hard it is, and I'm sure they don't underestimate it either, but… blaming others won't solve anything."

The blue-haired girl sat with her arms crossed and her head lowered. "It's just so god damn unfair. I don't deserve this."

"No," Kate said carefully. "You don't. And each and every one of us would want nothing more than to undo what happened to you, but… honey, it's not our fault."

"I know," she sniffed. "I just… needed to rage. It seems like nobody cares about us."

Bow Tie pitched in too. "I think that right now, we're all too busy caring about ourselves and trying to make sense of all this to be capable of caring about others."

Teenage only gave a snort and an eye roll.

"She is right though," Lăoshī pointed out, "if in a bit… overly buzzworded fashion, in that your group has been somewhat… lacking in showing understanding for the others. That's not a reproach, I know it's a lot to take in for you guys too, but… I think the Krieger people can use a bit more support and solidarity."

"Yeah," Kate had to admit. "You've got a point. I can't speak for the others, but I really feel deeply sorry for what happened to you. I mean it. And I fully acknowledge that we're the lucky ones here. I'm sorry for not being more considerate."

Blogger wiped her tears away, and even though she kept looking at the ground, she said quietly, "That's all I needed to hear, thanks."

Lăoshī looked at her watch. "It'll be dawn in two hours. We'll continue the support group part for as long as people can before they need to go to their sleeping place. As you doubtless already know, all sufferers of the human meta-human vampiric virus are extremely allergic to sunlight, which manifests in severe skin pains, cutaneous cellular degeneration and photophobia." She gave a brief cough, "As in, skin pains and burns, and your eyes won't be able to tolerate sunlight."

Teenage had her sense of humour back. "Thanks, that's better."

Impatient Beard Man asked, "I assume none of that trid stuff is actually true?"

"No. None of that other pop culture stuff either. Garlic? Worthless. A cross? Pft, tell them to shove it up the orifice of their choice. A stake? Only if it catches you in the heart, because, well, it's a pointed stake. Through the heart. Running water? Please, people, bathe. Regularly."

"Heh, in Polish wampir myths," Kate felt like sharing, "you can frighten a vampire by stabbing at its shadow."

Lăoshī chuckled. "Hadn't heard that one before, that's actually a pretty good one. But no. And you can enter houses without being invited. One thing though, you might notice some painful allergies to one or two materials. It's often wood, but it can be other things. Nobody knows what causes it, or how the material is determined, but it can be very painful or frightening." She sighed. "Does everyone have a place to sleep?"

Most mumbled a tentatively affirmative response. Kate just kept quiet. She'd find a spot.

"If not, you can stay here. It's not luxury, but it's safe. We'll be carrying on the support conversations for a while, as long as everyone can."

It was no coincidence that most of the Harz-Greenbaumers rose, and the Kriegers remained. They doubtless needed the group support. Kate felt sorry for them.

"Well," Teenage said, putting on her trendy latex jacket, "The self-help stuff's not really my thing, but thanks for this session, it was very enlightening."

"Same," Impatient Beard Man agreed. Bow Tie stood up and gave a short bow. "Thank you, Lăoshī, you've answered a lot of questions."

Lăoshī nodded. "You're always welcome here if you need more information, or when times are tough."

"Thanks a lot," Kate echoed the others. "We'll try the best we can to, you know… cause as little harm as possible."

"I'm sure you will, but… one more thing, if I may?"

Kate had a suspicion what she was going to ask. "Mm?"

"We would like to see your eyes before you leave. The sunglasses are so… impersonal. Whatever you're hiding, it can't be something we'll judge you for."

She figured the woman with the fringe had earned that much, and indeed, it's not like she'd be cast out or branded a monster because of a red eye. "Yeah, alright. Just… don't say it's a sign of a horrible variant of the virus."

"I won't," Lăoshī said with a smile.

Kate took off her sunglasses, and thankfully, the reaction she got was not one of mortified surprise or wailing panic, but of curiosity. Lăoshī and the others seemed genuinely intrigued. Even Blogger had temporarily forgotten her misery. "That's… strange. Did you have it before the infection?"

"Nope. Woke up with it after the accident."

Bow Tie looked at her face from several angles before concluding, "It doesn't look like it's caused by the accident, or any kind of physical trauma. Orbital haematoma doesn't look like that, and even then, I would expect periorbital haematoma, you know, panda eyes, but this…? Weird."

"I've seen it before," Lăoshī ruminated quietly. "Or heard of it." Her eyes were narrow, she was clearly thinking hard. "I remember. I think… Kotek, I can't be sure, and I don't want to give you false hope, but I know of some people who might help you find who infected you. It's a long shot, but it's certainly possible."

"Really? Alright, where do I go?"

"The place you need to go is called Heoi. It's a boat village not far from here, it's where – " she interrupted herself. "Nevermind. There's a group of people there who recently told me about someone who might have… I don't know where they live, but I know someone who knows."

This was good news, it gave her something to go on. The whole business with Tsang wasn't solved, and might never be, but this too was a question she wanted answered. Not because it mattered in a practical sense – it didn't – but because, much like an adopted child searching for its birth mother, she wanted to _know_. To see the person who'd done it, ask the questions she wanted to ask, and put it behind her.

"You don't seem like a pushover to me," the woman said, "and I'm sending you to good people. One of them also has the human meta-human vampiric virus, actually, Krieger strain. Anyway, like I said, they're good people, but they're also careful, with reason."

"Uh… I certainly don't want to cause trouble for anyone."

"Good, because if you do, well… to say that they're hardened fighters would be an understatement." She gave a polite smile. "Before I tell you, do you promise me you won't abuse this information?"

Kate shrugged. What would she even abuse it for anyway? "Sure, yeah. I just want to ask them a few questions."

Lăoshī took her by the shoulder and led her away from the others. "Go to Heoi, to the docks. There will be a ship moored there. No longer seaworthy, but it's being used as a living space by the people who can help you. Go unarmed. Trust me, it'll make things easier."

That wasn't very promising. "You're… sure these people won't just blow my brains out? Because the way you're saying it…"

"No, no. Like I said, they're good people. Can be a bit scary at times, some in particular, but they'll help you as long as you're friendly and respectful. And don't worry, the group's leader and second have their hearts in the right place. The others too, mostly, but they're… less obvious about it." She chuckled.

"Okay, so… what's the boat called?

She looked around furtively, then said, "It's not a boat, it's a ship. The Bolt Hole. Again, make sure you're unarmed when you approach it."

"Cool. I really appreciate this. Really."

"Mm. Just make sure it doesn't blow up in my face or I'll find you." With a grin, she added, "Do not take me for some conjurer of cheap tricks and all that."

"I don't," Kate said with a chuckle. "And I'll be good."

"Take care. I have to…" she motioned towards the remaining group members, all of them ghouls.

"Oh, sure. Hope they feel better."

"They will. Bye, Kotek."

"See ya."


	5. Fifth Night, PM

**.**

* * *

 **Fifth Night**

* * *

She'd been infected in or near the Walled City. Had to have been. Something big and terrible had happened there, and her infection had either been an important part of it, or a peripheral side event, but it was connected, and regardless if that connection was a thick web of important happenings or a wispy umbilical cord to a tiny afterbirth, it was there, and finding out what had happened in the Walled City would also reveal how and why she'd gotten infected. Perhaps it would even explain why Tsang wanted her, a loyal if slightly lazy security guard, dead so badly they sent the Bribe Alternative to kill her.

All this and more she pondered, sitting up in her shelter, loosely hugging her knees. She'd climbed down a sewer and found an abandoned maintenance office to hole up in. It was a pretty nice spot, all things considered. No vermin, not too filthy, and given the surroundings, an acceptable smell. She remembered the outrage that had ensued at the sacking of almost half of the sewer maintenance workers and the shutting-down of an equal portion of the workstations, about a year ago. That's why this office was in such a decent state, it had only been abandoned for a year or so. The cabinets still held folded plans of the sewer system, binders with instructions, and even an old plastic potted plant. She'd have to remember this spot, it made for a good sleeping spot on a long-term basis. And the fact that it had been unlocked for a year without being disturbed meant she was pretty safe for a while still. Hell, she could even redecorate the place a bit, get the lighting working again, stuff like that. Shame it didn't have a shower, but couldn't have it all. Of course, she was hoping to be out of Hong Kong, and clear of Tsang, within a short time frame.

She could use a shower, probably didn't smell all that fresh, especially after spending some time in a cellar full of stinky ghouls. She felt guilty thinking of them like that, but really… it was the truth.

Anyway, to the order of the day. A place called Heoi, ship called the Bolt Hole. She'd heard of Heoi, it was more a floating shanty-town of house boats. A bit of a walk, but she figured the heat would be a bit less after four days, so it'd be a pleasant stroll. The feeling was there again, of her body being… a bit distant, somehow. It was highly disconcerting, especially now she knew that it was her soul or her mind, or whatever, slowly letting go of her body. Not recognizing it anymore. She'd have to feed, and pick her targets, as Lăoshī had asked. But it was a bit of a conundrum, wasn't it? At first sight, it would be logical to feed on bad people, since, well, better condemn a bad person than a good one, but if you thought about it a bit more closely, it wasn't that simple. Because infecting someone made them a carrier, and a vector, as well. And bad people would feed indiscriminately, not caring who they infected, in turn hurting many more people. But what then? Feed on good folks? The ones who didn't deserve it in the first place? That wasn't fair either. This whole 'be careful whom you infect' shtick was nice on paper, but in reality…

Perhaps the chance would present itself, to feed on someone without harming the world.

Time to start her 'day'. Fretting wouldn't do any good. She exited the office, endured the stink until she came to the ladder, and climbed back to the surface, setting off for Heoi.

Her walk took her past the less well-off parts of Hong Kong, all a far cry from Nathan Road and the skyscrapers that counted Tsang Sec HQ among them. The streets were more narrow, less clean, and less well-lit. It was comparable to the neighbourhood Nuojin and his group of unfortunate would-be Runners had lived in, except that the houses were less squalid, but the streets felt more dangerous to compensate. She was bothered a few times by homeless people asking for change or food, but she needed the former and had no more use for the latter, so she just turned up her proverbial collar and ignored them.

She emerged from an alleyway to find herself in Heoi. It looked every bit as run-down as the rest of the district, but here, the owners of the small shops and stalls had installed neon lighting absolutely everywhere. Kate didn't think it was an improvement. At least without lighting the squalor could still hide in the dark, ashamed of itself. Here it was, exposed and naked, simultaneously laying itself bare and cowering in shame under the eye of all the people cursing it for being their home.

"Heyyyy," a diminutive man tried to catch her attention. "Sunglasses-at-night! You look like you like your tech!"

When Kate gave the pudgy kid with the dark blue beanie a look, she had to wonder if his balls had already dropped. He couldn't have been more than sixteen, wearing a bright but cheap-looking luminous blue visor over his eyes. He was holding a cyberdeck to his chest, and one of his hands was wrapped in a synthrubber glove, studded with buttons. Kate knew the thing.

"Heh," she pointed out with a chuckle. "That's some nostalgia gear right there."

"I love the power glove," the kid beamed. "It's so _bad_. Now, can I interest you in some tech?"

Nope. He couldn't. "Nope. You can't." On the other hand, he could dramatically shorten the time she'd spend looking for that Bolt Hole place. It's just take a small white lie. "But hey, tell you what, you let me know where I can find a certain boat, uh, _ship_ , and I'll be sure to mention your name to my decker friends."

The kid blew, taking care not to look impressed. "Every decker knows Maximum Law, babe."

Oh, that was a dead giveaway. Promises of increased commerce wouldn't help, but something else would. Pushing her boobs slightly forward, she tried again. "Oh _you're_ Maximum Law. Wow, never thought I'd meet you in person."

She had no idea who the fuck this kid was.

"That's me, babe. My time's valuable, but tell you what, 'cause I'm in a good mood, I'll help you out for free. How's that?"

Hah, feminine forms always worked on hormone-crazed teenagers, especially the ones like this guy. Probably never even seen a girl up close. "Thanks, I'm… _really_ appreciative." It was a petty, manipulative thing to do, but it wasn't like there were any victims to her little bit of femme fatale theatre. All she'd steal from him were a few breaths to explain where the damn ship was. And for the one time she actually managed to pull it off, she might as well use – and enjoy – it.

"Bolt Hole's anchored at the northern docks, a ways over there." He pointed between the house boats, to a long jetty. At the end, vaguely, she could see the shape of a ship sticking up above the bobbing roofs.

"Oh, riiiiight. Thanks, kid."

"Yo, that's Maximum Law, or Max, to you. By the way, there's not much you can do there."

This might be useful, even though it might be very bad news. "Oh? Why's that?"

He plunked the cyberdeck down on a crate and began screwing it open. " _Because_ the people who lived there are gone now. Gonna leave HK pretty soon." He looked up, trying to conceal his pride beneath a face of arrogant confidence, "They're some serious-calibre Runners. Customers of mine too." He turned back to the deck. "Of course they are."

Aw, shit. She'd been hoping to get all the information she needed tonight instead of being sent on a wild goose chase. Now these people, whoever the fuck they were, were gone and if this kid didn't know where, she'd have nothing to go on. "So uh… any idea where I can find them?"

He looked up at her. "You a cop or something?"

She tsk'ed. "Come on, Max, do I look like a cop? I just want to ask them some questions. It's about something that happened to me, and I just need to know. Nothing to do with the law." She added, with a kindred smirk. "Well, except that you're the Law here."

He gave a short chuckle, but then shook his head, back to fiddling with his cyberdeck, his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth. "Maximum Law is discrete, babe. I don't just tell anyone."

Yeah, like you were discrete when you said they were Runners. Like you didn't just tell anyone that they were gone. Some prodding would get her the information she needed – because he clearly knew _something_ , and loved showing it.

"Come on, Max," she insisted, leaning over his shoulder, supposedly examining the cyberdeck, but simply using it as an excuse for her boob to touch his shoulder. "You can trust me?" Yeah, it was dirty and morally questionable, but she really needed this information, and it wasn't like she was actually seducing him – she wasn't certain enough of his age to even contemplate that. She was just… being nice.

And it had more than a bit of effect. The guy sighed and said, "Look. All I can tell you is that they worked for Kindly Cheng. If anyone knows where they are, it's her."

Alright, that was a lead. "And of course, the Law knows where I can find this Kindly Cheng, right?"

He shrugged, then pointed his screwdriver in the opposite direction of the ship. "Mah-jongg parlour. That ain't no secret. But um," he remarked, tapping his lower lip with the tip of his screwdriver, "just letting you know, Kindly Cheng and her guys don't mess around."

"Neither do I," Kate said self-assured. She'd survived more than just some petty black marketer in these last few nights.

"I'm serious, babe. Kindly Cheng isn't some dumbass Blue Lantern, if you get my drift."

That term made her re-think her own confidence. This meant this Kindly Cheng character was at the very least a member of the Triad. And not some Blue Lantern, meaning someone with clout. And clout meant entourage. Any hope of getting information through any other means than negotiating – or at worst, kowtowing – could go right out the window.

Still, it had to be done, and Triad or no, the worst that could happen was that the woman simply refused to deal with her. That was one advantage Triad bosses had over petty criminals: they could see the long term, and they knew that harming people on a whim was terrible for business. She could expect courteousness as long as she didn't start provoking people. Which she had no intention of doing anyway. She was all about everybody getting along. "Yeah, well, I just gotta ask her some questions."

"Your funeral, babe."

Now he was just exaggerating.

It was clear which mah-jongg parlour it was. Apart from the fact that there was only one, it couldn't have been more obvious. People with tattoos stood looking 'inconspicuous' around it. A man and a troll, talking and smoking a cigarette, their eyes shifting back and forth. A woman leaning against the wall, one hand behind her back, under her jacket. An orc walking up and down the jetty, a suspicious bulge under his pullover. They could have just as well worn signs.

Still, it wasn't her problem. She came in peace.

The eyes followed her from the jetty to the door, but no one showed any intent of stopping her.

Smoke hung in the mah-jongg parlour, but the number of tile games being played was predictably far less than the place's name made suspect. There were exactly two mah-jongg tables, of which one was not being used. The other had a young woman, an orc and two elves occupying it, their concentration on the game immediately shifting to the new arrival.

This was an audience chamber more than anything, a place where business was conducted, but only between two parties. And one of the parties was clearly the middle-aged woman with dark grey robes sitting imperiously at an armed chair, behind a desk of polished mahogany. The cigarette she held in its holder, opera-length of course, was pointed haughtily upward, held loosely between two fingers. Her nose pointed the same way as her cigarette. A man standing behind her, over two metres tall and half-cybered up, crossed his arms just so he had an excuse to let his muscles ripple.

The tone was set and then some.

"The last white girl to step into my parlour brought me good luck," the woman said in a raspy, tobacco-worn voice, "and life teaches us that there is balance in all things." She took a drag from her cigarette. "That makes your prospects very dubious. Start talking."

Oh my. Was she always this welcoming?

"I'm just here for information," Kate said, trying not to look too uncomfortable. "There are some people I really need to talk to, and I was told you could help me find them."

The woman shrugged, blowing out smoke. "I can find anyone, if the price is right. And if I'm inclined to do so."

"I'm sure we can negotiate a fair price. As for inclination, well, I don't think there's any harm in helping me meet some people. Like I said, I just need to ask them a few things."

The Triad woman leaned forward in her chair, wrinkling her nose. "The smell of pork wafts off you, girl. I don't deal with cops or 25's."

"I'm not a cop," she said quickly. "Or a snitch, or an informant. Just a stupid wageslave."

She reclined in her chair, her nose pointing even higher. "We'll see. Now please, humour me. Tell me who you want found and what you're willing to pay for it."

Kate took a deep breath, all eyes still on her, and said, "I was told to find some people, for a… personal matter. They're – "

"There are no personal matters when I'm involved, dear." It was the first time Kate had heard the word 'dear' being used as an insult. "Why?"

She'd have to stand up for herself if she was to gain any respect in this place. "I thought you people appreciated discretion? Well, this is something I want to be discrete about." Triad leaders would tear you apart if you acquiesced to every demand.

The woman only gave a short, lopsided chuckle. "Who?" She didn't press the issue, so that was a good thing, Kate figured.

"The uh, people who lived on the Bolt Hole until recently."

A poker face if ever there was one. Though what it hid, Kate didn't know. "I see. And our payment for services rendered, if we indeed, deign to render the service, that is."

Kate fished the credstick out of her pocket, taking care to only use slow movements. She didn't want the cybered-up muscle mountain to tackle her to the ground. He looked like he could break bones with nothing but a stern look. "There's over sixteen thousand on this credstick. Six thousand is a more than fair price for a small bit of information."

The woman motioned for the enforcer to take the credstick.

"I have to warn you though," Kate said quickly as the muscleman snatched the stick from her fingers, "better to insert it on a closed circuit first, and de-SIN it. It's uh… a bit hot."

"De-SINning costs a thousand extra," the woman informed her flatly. Of course it did.

"I'd… like to ask though… these are my life's savings." She'd have to be a bit open-hearted to make sure these people didn't fleece her, and Triad or no, surely these people had hearts somewhere way down in their pits of stone, brambles and ichor. "I'd hoped to be able to use it for my own place somewhere, but… well."

"Please," the woman grunted, waving her words away as if they were foul-smelling smoke. "Spare us the sentimental babbling."

The huge cyber-man slid the credstick out of the portable terminal he'd been handed by an underling. "Speaks the truth on both counts," he rumbled. "Nuyen's there, and credstick is novahot." He held out the terminal so the gray-robed woman could read the screen.

Silence fell.

As Kate's tongue played around the fangs behind her lips, without her even being aware, the woman slowly rose.

"I'll tell you exactly what your money buys you in a minute. First, there are some things I'd very much like to…" She came around against her desk and leaned against it. "…impress upon you. Strangler Bao, if you please?" Holy hell, this man was called 'Strangler Bao', of all things, and it wouldn't be a name he'd gotten for his charming personality. The huge man motioned for two underlings to fetch something. They quickly disappeared in a side room, Kate's eyes involuntarily following them.

" _I'm_ talking to you, dear," the Triad woman snapped. "Don't look at them, look at me."

"Sorry, I – "

"I said I was talking to you. When I talk, _you listen_."

She took the hint and shut up. The two underlings reappeared and scuttled behind her. Her heart began pounding and her breath sped up when she heard the plastic being laid out behind her. The sports bag lay on the ground, out of reach. Oh god no. "Whoa, hey, come on, you don't have to – "

"Stop whining. I only want to give you a gift or two."

Whatever the gift was, if it involved covering the floor with a big sheet of plastic, it was something terrible.

The next moment, the Triad woman made her leg lash out hard. " _This_ is for being part of Tsang corporation."

The kick struck Kate so hard and unexpected between the legs, that she was briefly lifted up to the tips of her toes. The pain was immense, the soft, sensitive tissues squashed and wrenched by the impact. Her legs were powerless and refused to hold her up, sending her buckling to the ground on her knees, her hands reflexively pressed against her groin. She fell forward and one of her hands was only just in time to brace her, the other remaining where it was.

"Oh!" she heard the woman at the mah-jongg table jeer. "Right in the baby dispenser!"

She sat there on her knees and hand, her face drawn into a pained grimace. Her genitals felt numb and pounding with pain at the same time. Oh God she was going to die here. This bitch was going to kick the shit out of her and then shoot her like a dog. The plastic tarp said enough.

When she raised her head, she did it just in time to see the heavy candlestick come down. "And _this_ is for bringing your disgusting disease in here."

She only heard a clunk, but felt nothing, at least at first. When her head hit the plastic, the pain began pounding in the side of her face, and she felt the tickling of blood running from her cheek, over her nose to the other cheek. She opened her eyes to see red drops pattering on the plastic. It didn't matter anymore. It was all foreplay to her brains being blown out.

"And _this_ is for asking me to snitch on my associates."

A hard kick struck her in the ribs, knocking her over, sending her falling onto her side. She didn't know if any ribs were broken, but they hurt immensely. Not that it mattered.

"Oh, and for wearing sunglasses at night, here's a little extra." The tip of the woman's shoe smacked into her abdomen, knocking the wind from her.

"Yeah," the girl at the mah-jongg table cheered. "Kick the shit out of her, Auntie."

The Triad woman kneeled by Kate, imparting in venomous friendliness, "Now. Let me tell you what your money buys you. First, your life. Second, the clothes on your back."

Kate could only sputter and cough. Between her legs, on the side of her face, and on the left side of her ribcage, pain hammered away at her.

"So what you're going to do now, is crawl out of here like the little corp bitch you are, and never show your ghost face ever again." She brought her mouth even closer to Kate's ear. "If you do, I'm making a necklace out of your teeth. Or, well, Strangler Bao will, once my promotion to 438 is finalized. Is that clear?"

Shame and humiliation burning in her heart, Kate could do nothing else than nod.

The woman rose. "Strangler Bao, I have a feeling miss Tsang-humper isn't quite capable of leaving the premises at the tempo I would like her to. If you please, rid my parlour of this cadaver."

Without any ceremony, the huge enforcer grabbed Kate by the hood of her sweater and hauled her outside, dumping her on the wood of the jetty. "I've got no beef with you," he offered as parting words, "but you better not come back here, or you're dead."

She heard the door slam behind her.

It opened again and her sports bag was thrown against her ass, the weight of the SMG gone from it. "Here's your rags." The door closed again.

Her money, her dignity, her hopes of finding answers, all gone. She didn't care about the flunkies watching her, lying on the ground, bleeding and beaten, didn't care how much they enjoyed the sight. She just lay there on the jetty, capable of nothing more than holding back the tears. She'd lost it all, and for what? Why had this woman suddenly decided to beat her to a pulp? The whole transaction was going alright until the name Tsang had appeared on the screen.

What was she going to do now? All that was left was pick herself up off the ground, heal the bleeding wound on her cheek and catch her breath, then find someone to sing her fangs into, and finally just to disappear forever. Where would she go? She wasn't SINless, she couldn't travel or do anything without money.

The soft tissues between her legs pounded with agony, but the humiliation had been worse than any physical pain. She'd really hit rock bottom this time. How had it ever come to this?

"Well. You must be the luckiest person I've seen all year."

She opened her eyes to see boots standing in front of her. A quick scan of the surroundings told her it wasn't one of the mooks standing guard, they were all still there, sneering at her, she could tell even through the blur of her tears.

Perhaps it was just an asshole gloating, but he didn't sound like it. She looked up, ignoring the pain in her ribs as her neck craned, and asked, "How do you figure that?"

"Well," the man standing over her said, kneeling down. "You obviously displeased Kindly Cheng, and yet you're still alive."

She let out a choked laugh. "Thank Heaven for small favours, I s'pose."

He was an Orc, but markedly handsome, his face confident, rugged and authoritarian, and yet his eyes showed a softer, gentler side. His head was shaved on the sides, and short on top, in a short military mohawk. "Come on." He held out his hand. "I have no idea what you've done to get so worked over, but let me look at that wound in your face, at least. It's pretty nasty."

She might as well. Putting her hand into his, she was hoisted up to her feet with remarkable ease. When she saw his arms, she realized why – the Orc was pure muscle. Not a hulking giant like this Strangler Bao character, but clearly a rigorously trained and powerful person. A soldier or a cop. Or ex, at least.

"Geez," he grunted, setting his hands against her face and looking at the wound with a pained face. "This needs stitches. Don't worry, I've got some time to suture this. Even then, it'll be a nasty scar." He held up his PDA to her face, and on the screen, Kate could see a ghastly, almond-shaped stretch of open skin that went from her nostril to just below her eye, the skin simply split apart from the impact. It made her wince, but still, Kate figured it'd heal much better than this guy thought. The Human Meta-Human Vampiric Virus cared a great deal about its host, in its own twisted ways.

"I can't pay you for this. Bitch took all my money. Just so you know." She didn't feel like being in debt, especially not in this place. Her heart ached again at the loss of her entire life savings, but there was no way to get it back that didn't involve suicide.

"Oh, that's alright. It's just a bit of thread." His eyes narrowed, as if he was trying to remember something. "You look familiar… haven't I seen you somewhere before?"

Oh please. She appreciated the guy's offer for help, but she really, _really_ didn't feel like flirting, no matter how much of a dreamboat he was. She caught herself rolling her eyes. "Look, thanks for the concern, but I'm really not in the mood to be hit on. You're going to end up asking me to dinner, aren't you?"

Flatly, the Orc just said, "You're barking up the wrong tree, miss." He kept looking at the wound and produced a small suture kit. Kate had no idea what the remark meant, but her embarrassment only grew as she realized she'd been a bit overconfident and got shot down once again. "Now hold still. This'll sting like hell."

He wasn't wrong. She winced with every stab of the needle, the hyper-sensitive nerves in her cheek shrieking in pain from the tiny needle.

"Hold still."

Easy for him to say. Still, she couldn't appear like a wimp now. There had been more than enough of that already.

"So," he said, concentrated in the suturing. "What on Earth did you do to piss off Kindly Cheng so badly?"

"Man," she sighed, "Hell if I know. I just wanted some information. Was prepared to pay for it, too. Everything went well until she discovered…" She stopped herself. Maybe this guy would have the same response the ganger bitch had shown. The name "Tsang" didn't seem to be well loved around these parts.

"Discovered what?" He snapped the string and tied it into place. "There, you're good. Discovered what?"

Fuck it, what did it matter? This Orc clearly wasn't of the same rotten moral calibre the rice-eating Triad bitch had been. Hopefully. "… That I used to work for Tsang."

He only went, "Oh. I see."

"Yeah."

"Mmmyeah, that sure can be conversation killer when dealing with Kindly Cheng. What was your job?"

Might as well tell the truth. "Security officer. Just some wageslave trying to keep people safe and earn an honest living. I was never involved with any of the shady shit they apparently did. I just joined up to protect the working man."

"Aha. You said 'used to'?"

"Mm. They want me dead now."

"Huh." He chuckled. "You'd think Kindly Cheng would see that as a reason to see you as her best buddy." He put a hand on her shoulder. "Well, that's your injury taken care of. You hurt anywhere else?"

Her ribs hurt, and so did her 'baby dispenser', but she wasn't letting anyone near that. "No, I'm good, thanks." The sutures set the skin on her face taut, even pulled at the corner of her mouth.

"Alright," he said with a curt nod. Then he jabbed his thumb at the mah-jongg parlour behind him. "I'm going to pick up something in there, but before I do… what was the information you needed? Maybe I can help."

That was real nice of him, but she knew help didn't come free, or even cheap, around these parts. "Like I said, I can't pay, and I know – "

He flapped his hand, bothered, "Yeah, yeah, I know. Look, I'm not from around here, and I still believe in helping people when I can. So, what did you need? You've clearly paid enough already."

There was no reason to keep it from him. It wasn't a secret, and if he could help her – fat chance – then why not. "I just needed to find some people… the ones who used to live in that boat over at the other side of the district. The Bolt Hole?"

"It's not a boat, it's a ship," he said absently, his face pensive, the neon casting a multi-coloured glow on his skin. "Why do you want to know? Be honest."

She sighed. "Look, it's nothing dirty or dangerous, or dramatic. I just need to ask them some things. There's things I need to know. Personal stuff."

He nudged his chin at her, "Like where that red eye comes from? And I assume the fangs that go with it?"

Fucking Hell, did everyone immediately catch on to what she was? And there she was thinking she played it so cool. She put the sunglasses back on and said, "If you must know, yes. That's what I want to find out. I was in a serious accident and I can't remember what happened to me, and I just… need to know."

He looked at the mah-jongg parlour, then back at her. "Tell you what. I need to deal with this first, but I might be able to help. Meet me at the Bolt Hole in an hour."

"Why in an hour?"

He sighed impatiently. "Because I need to screen you, see if you are who you say you are. Don't worry, I'll get all your personal data from Kindly Cheng. Now I really need to go, and so do you."

"Alright. Thanks… I guess?"

"Thank me when your story checks out and I can tell you what you need to know."

Fair enough. This had been a very strange series of events, but after feeling like she'd hit a dead end, in more ways than one, there was at least a tiny sliver of hope. It could still go wrong in many, many ways, some more frightening than others, but in an hour she'd know more. It was possible that this guy was a killer or a predator, or that he'd decide she needed to be done away with to protect some crazy secret, or it could simply be that he decided not to help her, but somehow, she thought something useful would come from this.

The Bolt Hole in an hour. It gave her time to scout for a possible meal. The beating hadn't helped her sense of disconnection, and her body felt more and more numb as the night went on – except for the pain of the beating of course, that still hurt in complete and unforgiving clarity. The bruise between her legs tomorrow would be painful just to look at. Phillip would probably have to wait for his lovemaking, provided of course she survived long enough to reunite with him. That night at Tsang HQ felt like ages ago.

Who to choose for feeding? The old conundrum still remained. Good people didn't deserve it, and bad people would just infect more good people. She could just stalk someone, pounce on them, give them a good scare and drink her fill, but that would just spread her infection. She couldn't kill them after infecting them either, because it wasn't their fault that they'd been chosen. Hell, by that logic, she'd have to kill herself too, and, well, fuck that. That solution was only for the most dire circumstances – if she was unable to feed and could no longer avoid turning into an insane monster. That better not happen.

So killing after feeding was out of the question, but perhaps…

"Hey, excuse me?" she asked two older men who were engaged in a board game.

One of them, a gentleman with a long goatee, harrumphed and grunted, "More English. More trouble."

"No, no, I… just need to know if there's a clinic nearby. You know, a medical facility?"

"This is Heoi, dear," the other man said gently. "The only clinics here are semi-legal cyber shops. Do you need medical assistance?" He gestured at his own face, his finger making a circle on his cheek.

"Oh, no, that's just a flesh wound. I'm uh… just looking for someone. No field hospitals either?"

"There is a temporary medical emergency facility set up by the government after the Walled City disaster," the man with the goatee said roughly, pointing to her right, his attention still on the board. "You'll find it at the edge of the quarantine zone. And no, we do not know what transpired there, so don't bother asking. Now, please, leave us to our game."

With a friendly smile, the other man apologized, "Interruptions of our game of Go have been a nightly occurrence lately, it can wear on a man's patience."

Kate had half a mind to say that interruptions were to be expected when you played a game in public, but thought better of it. "Alright, I'll let you play. Thanks a lot, and sorry to disturb you."

"That's quite alright."

Emergency medical facility. That would work. Apparently the business that had gone down in the Walled City had caused enough civilian casualties to make government relief necessary. Maybe she'd find what she was looking for there. The most guilt-free way to keep herself from turning into a mindless killing machine.

It wasn't far to the quarantine zone. It had been instated to form a wide perimeter around the Walled City, and had swallowed quite a few streets that weren't even part of the place. Armed guards, both government and wearing Tsang colours, stood guarding the perimeter at fixed points, and patrolled the line to stop anyone from getting in. Big signs were posted, forbidding entrance in several languages and warning for EXTREME DANGER – SEVERE HEALTH AND SAFETY RISK. Below was a friendly reminder that OFFICERS WILL FIRE WITHOUT WARNING.

She had no intention or desire to enter the Walled City right now. It was too dangerous, since she was still very much K.O.S. in the eyes of Tsang, unless things had changed without her knowing. But she'd be daft to take that risk. No, no, her business lay elsewhere.

The big temporary medical building was easy to spot. The government, when necessary, rolled out a massive truck to disaster sites, a vehicle that could deploy as an almost instantaneously usable field hospital by expanding and unfolding its loading area to form a building with multiple rooms, wards and even operating theatres. The machine was a marvel of engineering, turning from truck into a multifunctional facility in two hours. It had deployed onto a vacant dock.

There it was now, a large barrack, a sign above its entrance identifying it as HONG KONG EMERGENCY MEDICAL HOSPITAL. There were no guards posted, just two doctors smoking a cigarette. Her plan was simply to walk on in, and she thought she had a good chance of actually succeeding.

"Hi," she said to the smoking medics, wearing her most harmless smile. Her bruised areas still hurt when she walked, but it was tolerable. "I'm looking for a friend who got injured in the Walled City uh… happenings. Can I go in?"

"Sure," one of the doctors muttered with a shrug, taking a drag from his cigarette. "Hospital's not quarantined. Public place. Just don't get in the way."

"I won't. Thanks."

It was amazing how big the place was. Not a full-sized hospital, obviously, but definitely the size of a basketball court, in all. Most of the hospital was taken up by the convalescence area, a large medical ward where people lay to recover from surgery, guarded by two bored-looking government soldiers. Some people in the beds were intubated and hooked up to a battery of expensive equipment, others lay in a simple bed, sleeping or reading their PDAs or books. There was very little noise, apart from the nurses quietly making their rounds and the occasional visitor quietly talking to a patient. No groans or cries of pain, no desperate dying moans. The morphine probably flowed liberally here. Kate truly hoped all of these people would see it through the night, and the ones after that. Most would, and those weren't the ones she needed, sadly.

She steered clear of the operating theatre (too many people), and made for her destination. The place where she had to perform her sad duty. A nurse walked by her, smiling and nodding. Kate returned the quiet greeting.

Every hospital had one. They were never called by that name, usually euphemised to "relief treatment" or "palliative care", but they were the holes people were left in to die. The ones beyond treatment, but who couldn't be euthanized. Who just lay there, waiting until they succumbed to the injury or disease that had already claimed their lives and simply took its time to collect. They were kept out of sight, in a cynical but necessary measure to keep morale among the patients from plummeting, a serious danger for injured or sick people. These few had to die in isolation to help the others live. Morbid, but it got results. That was metahumanity for you.

A single soldier guarded the door. "Evening, ma'am. Your business?"

Her disarming smile was out of place here, and Kate put on her sad face. "I'm… here to pay my last respects."

He took a clipboard. "Patient name?"

Shit, that was unexpected. Thinking fast, she said, "I don't know. It was someone who dragged me out of there when I was unconscious. She pointed at the freshly sutured wound on her face and hoped he'd be fooled. "I don't know who it was, but I could recognize him if I saw him. I… was told he was in this hospital, but I didn't see him in the ward, and the OR isn't being used, so…" she made her voice trail off and hoped not mentioning the implications made them more serious. She felt a bit guilty at her whole theatrics, but it was for a good cause.

"I see," the soldier said, scanning his clipboard. "We have three patients. I shouldn't do this, but… you can go and take a look, just… be respectful and don't cause any trouble."

She shook her head. "Of course not. I swear."

He nodded. "Alright."

It was a heart breaking truth that no one would care what trouble she did or did not cause. These people were only minimally attended, kept here only to die as painlessly as possible.

The first one would do fine. She wouldn't find a better candidate.

It was an old man, a blood-soaked bandage over his eyes, his face patched up behind the bandages. He lay motionless, his mouth open, breathing only slowly and weakly. The heart rate monitor began beeping more quickly when she entered. "Is… is someone there?" He spoke in a cultured British accent.

"Shh," Kate said quietly, holding back tears. It was heart wrenching, but it was the best way, no matter how much pain it caused her. "It's alright."

It wasn't alright. The emotional aspect of the transfer was required. She'd have to terrify him. This poor old man who just lay there, blinded and waiting to die. And she'd have to cause such horrible fear in him that his last moments would be blind and terrified.

She couldn't. Not like this. This was a mistake. No good deed could be worth this. She'd find another one. This had been a terrible mistake.

"Lynn… Lynnie, my darling, is that you?"

Kate could only rasp, "I… I'm…"

His hands weakly felt around him. "Oh, Lynnie, I knew you'd come. I knew you'd come and see me before I… They said you died. That you were in the house when it collapsed, but… I knew," the man breathed, his speech slurred from the heavy medication. "I've always known. A grandfather knows."

Kate screwed her eyes shut and did the only thing she could do. "It's me. Shhh, I'm here." She let her fingers touch his, her heart unable to decide if what she was doing was right.

"I knew…" he repeated. "I knew you'd come. They said I won't make it. The explosion, the shrapnel… they can't remove it. Some of it… in my brain. But… you live. That's… all that matters."

Kate fought back tears and held the old man's hand. Was she doing the right thing? This man was dying, and all he wanted was to believe that his daughter was still alive. He would die relieved and happy, even if it was all a lie. She realized that what she was doing was both kind and disgusting at the same time, and she hated herself even as she realized it was the merciful thing to do.

"My sweet Lynnie. I'll go to… the great unknown a… happy man. And I will… always love you."

Squeezing the tears out of her eyelids, she rose and bent over the old man's body. His arms searched for her and found her, wrapping around her in a feeble embrace. She knew the medication and injuries would make it impossible for him to realize she wasn't his granddaughter. But she remembered the words said in the self-help group. Extreme love was also a powerful catalyst for essence transfer. This man no longer needed what she was about to take from him, not where he was going, and the infection she'd pass on to him would die with him. There were many powerful emotions to take advantage of to feed, and if she had to do this, then perhaps the best she could do was let that feeling be one of intense love.

They embraced, the dying man's breath choking with emotion. He didn't even feel Kate's fangs sink in, and she did all she could to make the moment as genuine for him as possible. Her body slowly reconnected with her again, her senses and sensations completely hers again, at least for a while.

Slowly, she faded from his embrace, still feeling the duality of kindness and dirty lies as she looked at the old man's smiling face.

"I'm… ready to go now," he said quietly, his broken face in blessed tranquillity. "Help me… I want to rest."

Kate held the old man's hand as she turned the dial up, increasing the pain medication, slowly sending him to sleep, and from there, to the end of all fear, pain and suffering.

She left the hospital, proud of herself and revolted by herself at the same time.


	6. Fifth Night, AM

**.**

 **Fifth Night, A.M.**

It was hard not to think of the old man and the way he'd died, but Kate tried hard nonetheless. She kept trying to re-route her thoughts back to the past nights, but every time, the face of the old man, bandaged and ruined, crept back in. She'd never forget him, that was for certain. Still, she'd fed on someone who hadn't suffered from it, and who wouldn't make the world suffer.

A few months ago, she'd read about a serial killer who stalked hospitals' palliative wards and committed murders there. She'd shaken her head and wondered why anyone would possibly do such a thing. There had been no real point, since it wasn't really killing and probably wouldn't satisfy any urges, and if it was about mercy killing, then why only one patient? But now that she'd been infected, she realized this may have been someone just like her, feeding without passing on the infection. Strange how things could look so obviously evil and beyond explaining, and yet could somehow turn out to be something else entirely. There was always something you never would have thought of.

Her musings were broken by the Orc walking into view, accompanied by a human woman. It didn't look like they were intent on killing her, their weapons in their holsters and their hands empty. The woman had bright red, almost orange hair.

"Hey," Kate merely said when they'd reached her.

"Hi," the Orc said back, wary but not unfriendly. "Did a little research into you, or at least, Iz did." He checked, realizing he shouldn't have mentioned that name, for whatever reasons. The woman gave him a scolding look, but the corner of her mouth was slightly turned up. He cleared his throat and went on, "Ekaterina Brzezicki. Name checks out, that's something at least. It's definitely true that Tsang wants you dead. Seems you're the last in a string of mysterious passings and disappearances in the Tsang family."

Kate only said, "Yup."

"So what'd you do?" the Orc asked.

"That's actually one of the things I want to find out. I have no idea right now. Never stole, never leaked information, never spied on anyone in the locker room. Was always a loyal, if slightly underperforming if you can believe my superiors, security officer."

"Weird."

"Tell me about it."

"Anyway, about your uh, infection problem."

She liked the guy enough, but she wished he would _get on with it_.

"We think we know who infected you. Were you in the Walled City recently?"

"Uh, yeah, actually." She knew it had something to do with that shit pit. "I was assigned there the evening it happened. Woke up in an ambulance a while later, after it had been t-boned by another car. No survivors apart from me. Was in pretty bad shape, had a very fashionable gut wound."

The Orc and the woman exchanged a meaningful glance.

"Guys, come on. I swear, I'm not a stool pigeon or an undercover cop. I just… want to know what happened to me."

The man once again looked back at the woman, who gave Kate a long pensive look and then nodded.

"Come on, let's go for a drink," he said.

They sat down at a nearby terrace with rusty patio seats and rickety plastic tables. The woman ordered a soykaf, the Orc asked for sparkling water. Kate ordered a soykaf too, if only to appear normal. She was so impatient she could burst out of her skin at any moment, but she knew pushing it would only harm her investigation.

"So, Ekaterina," the Orc began, "why do you want to find who infected you?"

"You can uh, just call me Kate. Or Katie, why not." She took a breath and let it out slowly. "I want to find who infected me because I just… want to know."

He shrugged. "What's it even matter?" The woman still hadn't spoken, she just kept looking at Kate, analysing her. She was okay-looking, if slightly plain, with fiery red hair that went down to the middle of her back. Three bright blue stripes dyed it on the front, the colour so intense it almost looked luminous. Her eyes were the same shade, a bright, piercing blue that appeared to actually shine. Maybe it even did. She had an only barely noticeable underbite, which actually suited her face. The armoured clothing she wore suggested, just like the Orc, that these people were veteran Shadowrunners, not newbies like her short-lived group had been. She tried not to think of the poor bastards.

Her mind went back to the conversation at hand, and she answered, "I just do. I need to understand, and the best way to understand is to find who did it to me."

"And then what?" he asked. "Make them pay?"

Kate shrugged. It really wasn't something she had planned. "Nope. I have to feed too, so how can I blame someone else for wanting to survive?" She leaned closer to show she meant it. "I just want to _know_. That's all."

The Orc inhaled through his nose, thinking. "I… don't know. You have to understand that this is all very risky to us."

"Look, imagine that one day, you find out you were adopted. Wouldn't you want to find your biological parents? Sure, it wouldn't provide any real, practical advantage, but you'd want to _know_ , right? This is how I feel right now. I know the comparison sounds a bit stupid, but there you go."

Something changed in both their faces, and the woman finally spoke. "We can help you, if you promise, if you _swear_ you're telling the truth."

Kate held up her hand. "Pinkie swear."

She nodded. "We know who infected you. Not sure if we'll be able to get a location, but I think we can manage if we try. I go by Fire Ant on the streets, so I guess you can call me that." She held out her hand.

As she shook the woman's hand, Kate couldn't resist a chuckle. "I can see where the nickname comes from." The woman was confident to the point of haughtiness, but she also had a strange magnetism, a way to conduct herself in a conversation exactly the right way. When Kate shook her hand, she noticed a cybernetic implant going from the wrist all the way to the forearm, a metal casing with a vertical slot on top, surrounded with micro-engines. The points of implantation were still raw and red, so it was a recent addition.

She smiled. "I bet. It was an old nickname my brother here gave me," she nudged her chin at the Orc, "so I figured I'd stick with it."

Wait, hold on, that didn't add up. She blinked. "Your brother? But…"

With a chuckle, the Orc merely said, "There's more ways to be siblings than in blood."

Oh, so that's why their minds had changed so quickly when she'd used the adoption argument. She mentally congratulated herself on the smooth move. "Oh, right. And uh, what do I call you?"

The Orc held out his hand, but rolled his eyes, clearly embarrassed. "I'll just give you my real name, it's – "

"No," the redhead said with a mischievous grin, obviously enjoying something, whatever it was. "Street names only, dear brother."

"Come on," the Orc said. "I'm sure there's no problem – "

The woman tsk'ed, her amused grin widening. "You can call him by his street name for now. I present to you the renowned runner known as Gun Show."

Gun Show? Oh dear, that was a street name worth being embarrassed about. "Gun Show?" Kate repeated, trying to lessen his discomfort by saying, "I think it's kinda cute."

"See?" the redhead said, now grinning broadly. "It's a good street name."

"It's stupid, is what it is," the Orc grunted, shaking Kate's hand, then crossing his arms.

"Well, I'm Kate, as you already know. Or yeah, my friends call me Katie, I s'pose you're my friends now too."

The woman was serious again and nodded. "As long as you don't stab us in the back."

"I won't. Promised."

The Orc slurped his sparkling water, still miffed.

"Our decker is looking up your uh, person of interest as we speak. She'll be done any minute now. Until then, why not tell us your theory on why Tsang wants your body parts stuffed in trash bags around Hong Kong?"

Kate figured there'd be no harm in sharing what she knew, or thought she knew. It wasn't like Tsang could get any more pissed off with her than they already were. She sighed and said, "Well, like I already mentioned, I don't know for sure, but I'm almost certain it has something to do with the Walled City. _Something_ happened there, and Tsang wants the people who were stationed there, out of the picture."

Another exchange of meaningful glances.

"You… guys obviously know more about that."

The redhead sipped her soykaf and put it down again. "Yes. We do. We uh…" she exchanged another look with her 'brother', "… we've heard things."

"What? What have you heard?" Her heart beat harder. This was important, she knew it.

She looked down at her soykaf and only said, "Something big happened there. Bigger than an explosion. Bigger than a corporate roundup. There's talk of a malevolent entity, a sort of demon who made the place her home."

" _Her_ home?"

The woman's eyes shifted nervously. "Well, uh. Yeah. His home, her home, its home. Whatever."

They knew more about it, these two, and they didn't want to share, at least not everything. Maybe because they didn't trust her, or maybe for more sinister reasons. With added stress, Kate asked them, "Was this what infected me? This demon?"

" _No_ , no," the redhead assured her. "It had nothing to do with what happened to you, at least not in a practical sense. Correlation, but no causation."

"Please, Fire Ant," Kate insisted. "I just want to know, I promise."

"We understand," Gun Show said calmly, "but we promise that this had nothing to do with your infection. We know that for a fact."

"It may have something, or a lot, to do with why Tsang wants me dead!"

He shook his head. "No, pretty sure it doesn't." He drained his water. "But that's a question you need to ask Tsang, not us."

God, this was frustrating. She realized these two were risking a lot by telling her even this much, but she hated that they had answers and couldn't, or wouldn't, share them. "Look, I understand how – "

She was interrupted by the runner's PDA beeping. " _Hel_ -lo?" she chirped. "Looks like we've got a location."

The PDA projected a holo of a woman with luxuriant black curls and a chocolate-coloured skin. "Hey Fire Ant. Did some research, like you asked, you know, industrial coolant units ordered by private citizens in the last weeks?"

"M-hm?"

"Got two addresses. One's a family of seven on a farm in the outskirts, and one's a single male CEO on the penthouse level of an apartment block on Peak Road."

The red-haired woman laughed, her brother chuckling modestly with her. "Yeah, the second."

Katie didn't understand entirely, but it would seem she'd have to follow the stink of money, from the looks of it. Peak Road had at one time been the most expensive street in the entire world, and though it had long since lost that position and clung mostly to old glory, it was still populated by high rollers.

"So," the woman said with a smile, leaning back in her chair. "Seems you've got a lead?"

"Seems so. Thanks, but… can you at least tell me what to expect?"

She shrugged. "Someone non-violent if you make sure to mention my name."

The Orc added, "Someone who'll doubtless remember the incurred beatdown upon a past attempt at violence."

Oh dear. Seems like the person she was looking for had a bit of a history with these guys.

"Don't worry," Fire Ant said. "We kissed and made up. Well, not literally kissed. For uh, obvious reasons."

"Yeah, I bet." Kate didn't need to be reminded.

"So there you go," the girl said with a smile. "Your next destination. Hope that helped?"

She had to push it, because these two were a lead she'd never find again if she let them go. "I appreciate it, really, but, well…"

The red-haired woman cocked her head.

"… there's something else I really need to ask."

"Give 'em an inch…" the girl muttered, but her bright blue eyes were amused.

"It's about Tsang. I barely escaped with my life when I tried to look for answers, and a few innocent people lost theirs. But I need to know why they want me dead, because unless I know the reason, I'll never escape this shithole. For all I know, I could be playing right into their hands if I try to escape blind."

Both the Runners – because that was obviously what they were – spent a few moments in silent thought. Eventually Fire Ant said, "Tell you what. We need to run a few more checks on you before we can help with anything else, because you're asking a lot, to be honest. Tomorrow, when you're done with your mystery meeting, come back here, to this place. Say, ten PM?"

"Anytime after dark is fine," Kate said, not showing the relief that she'd at least get a second meeting.

"Ten PM it is," she said. "I have to tell you though, if you miss the meet, we're gone forever. I'm sure you're a cool chick, so don't take it personally, but we can't risk anything more than that for now."

That was reasonable, but it did mean that whatever they had to say to her, it would be 'novahot' as these Runners liked to call it. It was encouraging and frightening at the same time. She wasn't too worried about the background check, since everything she'd said had been true. She was a fan of the old adage, 'tell the truth, you'll have less to remember'. "Great. I'm really thankful about this. I mean it."

"We help when we can," the Orc simply said. "Just make sure it doesn't come back to bite us in the ass."

"Promised."

They rose, and Kate tossed enough cash on the table to cover the drinks.

"Cash?" the redhead chirped. "How quaint."

"Yeah, well," Kate grunted, "that Triad bitch took my credstick with my life savings on it. You know, after she beat the shit out of me because of my former employer."

"Kindly Cheng?"

"Mm."

Fire Ant crossed her arms and gave her brother a disapproving frown. "Brother, I don't think that's a very cool thing of Kindly Cheng to do."

"Me neither."

"I'll talk to her. See if we can't get some of your nuyen back." She shook her head. "Man, I hate bullies."

Kate had to agree. "You and me both." She liked the woman, despite her slightly reserved and haughty attitude, but she was aware that a large part of it was due to the redhead's ability to navigate conversations with extreme skill. It didn't matter, really. They were helping and that was the most important part.

"Well," the woman said as parting words, "So much for our small effort to earn some karma. See you tomorrow, hopefully."

"I'll be there."

The orc gave her a nod. "See ya, Katie."

"See ya, Gun Show."

"Couldn't resist, could you?"

"Nope."

"Take care."

"You guys too. And thanks again."

She watched them go for a bit, then began to think of a way to reach Peak Road and to get into the building. There would be security, probably, since it was still an upper-class neighbourhood – at least the prices were – but she had her abilities, and these would be private security guys, meaning capable and well-paid but also bored and rusted into routine. Their eyes wouldn't be too hard to pull the wool over. She'd have to take a cab and spend some of her running-low cash money, but she'd probably be able to pay for the ride back too. Ride-'em-and-run would be too risky. Everything she did wrong, even something as petty as not paying for a cab, would attract attention and she couldn't afford it, in no way whatsoever.

She walked back to a less squalid part of town and hailed a cab.

"Where to?"

"Peak Road, please."

The man nodded and put the car in gear. Kate had to chuckle at the unfortunate name displayed on the cabbie's licence. It must be hard to live and work in a city where many people spoke English if you had the name Man Fuk.

"I know, I know," the cabbie singsonged. "Don't worry, I think it's funny too."

Since cabbies were supposed to make small talk, Kate figured she might as well make use of their abilities. "So hey," she began, sounding as casual as she could, "Sure was something at the Walled City the other day, right?"

"Oh man," the cabbie went off like a rocket. "All kindsa talk about what coulda caused it. Some people are sayin' it was riots, some say it was some kind of radiation leak, or a virus, Hell, there's even some people spouting drek like demon lords. And aliens of course. Always fraggin' aliens."

It was the second time she heard the demon lord theory. Sure, it was probably just sensationalism, but she didn't think the two Runners were the type to launch rumours just for their outlandishness. "What's so strange about a demon lord? I mean, this _is_ the Sixth World, right?"

"Yeah, I know," the cabbie said back, "but that's the problem, ain't it? Before the Awakenin', people never believed any of that talk about magic and supernatural drek, even when it was true. And now, in the Sixth World, it's the reverse, you know? _Everything_ 's gotta be magic an' demons an' spirits an' a little girl at the bottom of the well an' fraggin' Cthulhu burstin' outta the sea to dickslap everyone an' fraggin' intergalactic prince Xenu explodin' volcanoes."

"Well, that's how it goes," Kate said. "Show a Fifth Worlder magic and he'll be convinced it's technology. Show a Sixth Worlder technology…"

"… And he'll insist it's magic," the cabbie finished. "Ain't it the truth."

"Still, it's possible right?"

"Well yeah, honey, but so is everythin' else. I try to be a rational human bein', you know, so I'll look at the most obvious possibilities first. I'm guessin' the poor schmucks in the Walled City were sick an' tired of bein' locked up in a fragging garbage dump, an' they fragged some shit up real good until the Man came in to put the smack down on their proletarian asses."

The Hong Kong streets glided by as the cab driver took her to Peak Road, the scenery changing from the low-class housing to larger and more luxurious apartments.

"Well, yeah, but why all the secrecy then? I mean, riots happen all the time."

"Not on such a massive scale, hun. I mean, half the Walled City was _levelled_ , it wasn't just a few proles throwin' rocks in the streets. There were explosions, gunfire, even armoured troops an' vehicles rollin' in."

"Maybe it was a panic because of some demon lord?" Kate asked, more to prod him than anything else.

With a raw laugh, the cabbie answered, "Don't you start with that drek too, darlin'." He was awfully jovial, perhaps unprofessionally so, but Kate didn't mind. It was nice to have just a relaxed conversation without suspicion and tension and seriousness.

"I'm just saying," she went on, still half serious, "Just because one explanation makes sense doesn't mean there can't have been several causes."

"Mm," the cabbie mused, scratching his chin. "Guess you got a point. But until I see a good reason to assume 'demon lord' or 'alien ethereal' or fraggin' Bozo the Clown, I'm gonna assume the most logical explanation's the right one."

She couldn't blame him, but still, this demon lord thing was too interesting to let go just yet. "So what kind of specific things are they saying about a demon lord?"

"Oh man," he laughed. "Every story's crazier than the one before. There's people sayin' it was the devil, you know, Old Scratch himself, some people sayin' it's some ridiculous dude called Sheogorath, but most people say it's one of the fraggin' Yama Kings." He grunted. "Course they do. Wouldn't be Hong Kong if it wasn't always one of the damn Yama Kings."

This sounded interesting. "The _what_ kings?"

"Oh man," he shook his head. "Now we're in for the duration. They're basically some kind of bogey-men made up by the fearful mortals to explain all kinds of wacky drek. You know, all those things that you can never really prove they even exist? Supposedly 'cause they're subtle but actually 'cause people make 'em up? Drek like 'bad qi' or 'unhealthy vibes' or 'jinxes' or any of that superstitious mumbo-jumbo?"

"Well, mankind's been trying to explain those things since pre-history?"

"What I'm sayin'!" the cabbie said emphatically. "It's about damn time we stopped! We ain't fraggin' cavemen, we've got science, an' if science says it ain't real, then girlfriend, it ain't real."

She didn't entirely agree with the man, absence of proof wasn't proof of absence after all, but listening to him getting all keyed up was a good diversion for the tension and pain of the last nights. It felt… safe, somehow. A conversation that didn't involve mistrust and wariness. Just light-hearted fat-chewing.

"Nah man, people oughta stop lookin' for all kindsa outlandish explanations when the truth's right in front of 'em. Sixth World or not, usually when the shit hits the fan, it's 'cause of people and their stupidity."

Now that she had to agree with. "Tell me about it. Imagine what a great world it would be if everyone got their heads out of their asses."

"Drek, honey, you said it. Mind, I'd still be drivin' this cab though. Love this job to death." Kate could tell. "But if the world was a fairer place, I'd be doing it for a comfortable wage. Nuthin' excessive, you know, but enough to buy myself a nice place. Raise a few tykes. You know."

"Yeah," Kate sighed, thinking of her lost savings. "I know."

"Almost there, hun. Need me to wait?"

Good question. Maybe it was a good idea, but it'd cost extra. "Depends, I have like, three hundred nuyen left, and it's all cash."

He nodded. "Should get you by if you don't take all night. I'll cut you a deal. First half hour's free."

"Great, I appreciate it. Can I leave my bag here?"

"Sure can." His eyes briefly looked back at her in the rear-view mirror, but she saw him grin. "And as a bonus, I'll ignore the fact that you're payin' cash like some shady fugitive."

Yes, because she certainly wasn't anything of the sort! "Thanks, I'm uh, having some software problems."

He only chuckled and said, "Ain't my affair." Then he pulled over. "Here you go, kind lady. I'll be right here. Any idea how long you'll be gone?"

"Uh… I don't know, an hour?"

"Great, gives me a chance to grab a bite."

Kate stuck a fifty nuyen note between the seats. "It's on me, Man. Enjoy!" She didn't have the money to spare, but he seemed like a good guy and he deserved something extra for waiting at a cool price.

"Well gee, this is the kinda thing that makes my night! Need me to bring you back sumthin'? You look like you could use a pork bun."

"Uh, no…" she said. "I uh, already ate."

"You sure? A man who never eats pork bun is never a whole man."

"Positive, but thanks."

"Alrighty. See you in a bit." He drove off in search of food. Kate wished she could do the same.

Everything about Peak Road spoke "faded glory", but Kate still figured it'd take many lifetimes of Tsang Sec salary to even buy a garage box in this place. These weren't the skyscrapers of the downtown city centre, or the villas of the suburban money-grubbers, but three-storey buildings, which were big enough to be used as three apartments, but usually belonged to a single residence. All the buildings were protected by high fences, alarms, cameras, motion sensors and the occasional dog. And all the fences had prominently displayed labels of security firms in place, most Lone Star, the rest mostly Knight Errant, with only a few logos of independent contractors.

The street itself was mostly trash free, and there was still a lot of greenery around. At least, where it hadn't been bulldozed to make swimming pools and tennis courts. Peak Road, as the name said, was high on a hill, and the view between the buildings was pretty awesome, all the lights of downtown Hong Kong creating a smattering of stars and suns below.

Two drunk girls came up the street, swaying and staggering, supporting themselves on each other. They were European-looking, and dressed in expensive white clothes, their orange tan so fake Kate was surprised they weren't mistaken for traffic cones. "Hey," one of them yelled, slurring her words. "Is too late for tourist! Go back to poor house, Сука!" The other found it hilarious, hiccupping with laughter and leaning on her friend for support. The bottle of vodka – real, actual alcohol, not the synthetic stuff – dangled loosely in her hand.

Fucking Russians. Always drunk, always shouting, always picking fights. These bitches were the worst, probably Ukrainian gold diggers with their shiny white jackets and huge fur hats. "Why don't you go to your sugar daddy's fancy place and sleep it off, kurwa," Kate said back from across the street. "A hangover's no fun to have when you need to spread your legs for the old rich guy who ordered you from a catalogue."

"Aah, pft!" the Russian bitch blew, giving Kate the middle finger. "Oтвaли, Polish пизда! We slaughter Polish animals in Euro-Russian War!" She spat at Kate, only barely standing. Her friend looked like she was slowly becoming less eager for this altercation, and Kate heard her say something in Russian before pulling the other girl's shoulder. She clearly realized this could get out of hand pretty fast. The loud girl slapped her friend's hand away and went on, "Polish peasants, we gather them in ditches, then we shoot dumb fucking Poles and dump _shit_ on them! Bury dead Poles in _shit_!"

"Hey, you, girl," the other Russian chick said, slurring as well, but at least trying to defuse the situation, "My friend, she drunk, okay? She rude. I sorry. I apologize for friend."

"You don't have anything to apologize for," Kate told her. "Your friend's being an ass, not you." She was feeling the anger slowly building. She hadn't lived the Euro-Russian war, not very consciously at least, but her grandparents had died in Poland, all four of them, those on her mother's side executed for resisting looting Russian soldiers, and those on her father's side killed during a spider-bomb detonation aimed for Polish resistors. Her uncles had both fought and died to protect their country, shot to shreds by Russian guns and left to rot with the pieces of their fellow countrymen. Drunk or not, this old-man-fucktoy was making her kettle slowly boil over. Her parents had emigrated to get themselves and their daughter away from that shit, and here they were, the fucking Russians, bringing it right back to her again.

"She friend, okay?" the smaller girl said again. "Sorry, she drunk. Come on Anya, we go. We go."

The loud girl gave the other chick a push, sending her staggering backward, then almost falling over. The bottle of vodka clanged to pieces on the sidewalk. "You Poles!" she resumed shouting. "Russian men fuck ugly Polish women in war! Fuck your ugly Polish мама! Do your мама in the мудак!"

"Anya, заткнись!" the other girl insisted, then back to Kate, "Sorry! I sorry! We go. Anya, we go."

"You know," Kate said calmly, "I left Poland when I was a little girl, so I'm not personally offended, but in the name of all the Polish people who got killed in the war you sausage eating slant-eyed drunks started, I'm telling you to shut your whore mouth right now, moskal, or I'm going to cheeki breeki iv damke all over your ass, you understand, _Anya_?"

"No, no," the other girl still tried. "Anya, stop. We go. Come on." She pulled her friend's sleeve, but Anya whirled around and socked the other girl in the cheek with a wild swing, sending her flat on her ass.

"You think you tough, Polish?" She shrugged off her jacket, letting it hang halfway off her shoulders, her hands balled into fists. Her heels clacked on the sidewalk as she stomped her feet. "I kick Polish ass. Come on, Сука. Come on!"

That was all Kate needed. With a few determined strides, she cleared the distance to the rich bitch and gave her a quick left-right-hook combination to the face. The woman staggered backwards, her arms flailing, and more because she wanted to than because she had to, Kate gave her a hard elbow right in the teeth. She felt the girl's mouth crumble at the end of her elbow, and when she went down, three incisors fell in their own separate arcs. She hit the curb hard, the back of her head thwocking on the stones.

For a moment Kate thought she'd gone too far, but then she saw the woman slowly bringing her hands to her face and feeling for the damage. Her instructor at Tsang Sec had always taught her a skull was much harder than people thought, and he'd known his shit, which was proven once more today. Still, the Russian bitch made no sound apart from a quiet whimper. Her upper lip was flattened and split, and her mouth was sunken where she'd lost the three teeth.

"You… you kill Anya? You kill Anya?" the other girl slurred, coming to stand, or better sway, next to Kate, her hand on her nose. "Oh no. Anya rude, but no deserve to die."

"She's fine," Kate said simply. "Going to have more important worries than a hangover in the morning though."

"Oh Anya," the girl muttered, only barely not too drunk to disapprove. "You so stupid sometimes."

An idea formed in Kate's head as she saw the Russian or Ukrainian or whatever trophy whore lying on the ground. Perhaps all the climbing and sneaking she'd expected wouldn't be necessary. The cameras and motion sensors all guarded the perimeter of these gated communities, but once inside, she suspected the gardens and parks would be relatively unmonitored. After all, the residents probably liked their privacy. So if she could get through one front door…

"Shit, now I feel bad," she told the other girl, not meaning it in the least. Like her friend, this floozy was the same as all those made-up luxury trophy women. They looked attractive enough until you came close enough to see the pits and the plastic in their faces. Pretty from afar, but far from pretty. No matter, they'd get her through a door, any door. "Tell you what, I'll take you both home and put your friend into bed. Don't worry, I'm a nurse," she lied. "I'll give her something to sleep and then you can go see a doctor in the morning."

The girl hesitated, but drunkenness and the emotion of the altercation eventually won out. "Okay. You come. You carry Anya?"

Kate had no intention of actually _carrying_ her, but she supposed it would look more convincing if she at least _hauled_ the woman to her house. "Yeah, I'll get her." She grabbed the bitch under the arms and dragged her along, following her still-drunk friend to their building. It was only a few houses down the street, thankfully, so Kate wouldn't have to engage in physical contact with this dumb bitch any longer than necessary. Occasionally, she mewled quietly, to show she was still alive.

"We live… here."

"Oh," Kate couldn't resist. "Your sugar daddy got a two-for-one deal, huh?"

"No," the woman frowned. "I live on top floor. She on ground floor."

Probably still ordered from the same catalogue anyways.

"Okay," Kate said, "you go on, get to sleep, I'll make sure she gets home."

"Sorry for trouble, okay?" the girl said, her face a dumb version of apologetic.

"Don't be sorry, your friend's the one who made trouble, not you."

"Yes, but still. Feel… responsible?" Seemed this one wasn't such a bad sort at least.

"It's cool. Your friend's going to wake up pretty pissed off at herself in the morning."

"Yes," the girl said, dragging herself up the stairs to her own place. "Not worry. Boyfriend pay for teeth."

Kate didn't doubt it for a moment. What would ruin a normal wageslave financially was just peanuts for the people who lived here. Tooth operation? No problem. Car wrecked? Just buy a new one. In need of a girlfriend that doesn't talk back? Just have an Eastern European forced sex worker flown in and Stockholm-syndrome them into taking your money in exchange for insincere companionship.

She envied and pitied these people at the same time. "Love isn't real unless it's not real," Kate muttered to herself, pressing the button on the intercom.

"Hua residence, good evening?" the voice sounded through the intercom. It sounded like it was only using the interrogative as a formality, knowing full well who called this far into the small hours. "Miss Serkova, is that you?"

Kate gave the Russian hussy a light slap on the cheek. "Speak, come on," she hissed quietly.

"Miss Serkova?"

"Polish stink of shit. Polish fuck shit fuck," the sex doll mumbled, blood flying from her lips in a fine spray as she spoke, lisping from the missing teeth. A string of insults in Russian followed.

"I see," the man on the other intercom spoke, unimpressed. It probably wasn't the first time this one came home so utterly hammered. You were Russian or you weren't, Kate supposed. A buzz sounded and the door unlocked, but before Kate could push it open, it came toward her, a huge, towering troll in a butler's uniform holding the door knob.

There was a brief moment of awkward silence before the troll simply said, "Oh my."

"Hi. Uh, I'm Kate."

"Hello. Kate. Dare I ask what happened to miss Serkova?"

"Yeah, she uh… pissed off the wrong person," Kate said. It wasn't _technically_ a lie.

"So it seems." The troll had a long face and broad nostrils, his face reminiscent of one of those old cartoons where the butler looked so formal he seemed ready to turn into a statue at any moment. "And you…?"

"Found her," Kate said quickly. "Brought her home. Her friend told me where she lived. The one who lives…?" she pointed her finger upwards.

"I see."

"So uh, am I supposed to stand here in the doorway with her?"

The butler inhaled through his nose, slowly and loudly. "Do come in, miss. If you would be so kind as to wait until I've placed a protective sheet over the sofa."

Kate dragged the Russian trophy wife into the apartment, a luxurious dwelling with furniture made of polished wood, soft leather and delicate fabrics. Meanwhile, the butler trotted off and came back with a sheet of plastic. The floor was tiled, but the sofa Kate was supposed to lay her on wasn't exactly hydrophobic, and Kate doubted the owner of this place would be comfy with his dumb sex doll bleeding all over the expensive cushions.

The butler spread the tarp over the sofa and nodded at Kate, who dumped the drunk bitch without much ceremony.

"Yes…" the troll remarked. "I do believe her behaviour merits very little gentility. I will summon a physician to see to the results of her instigations. I assume you will want to be compensated for your service?"

"Well, you don't have to…"

He made an impatiently weary face. "Yes, you require compensation, you all do. I will fetch you a charged credstick. Please wait here."

Well, the money was nice, but she wasn't here for that. Now to hope he'd fall for her little trick. "Hey uh, is it alright if I smoke a cigarette out back? You know, in your garden? It's been an emotional day."

"In the _garden_? A _cigarette_?" He looked like he was hiding the fact that he was about to have a heart attack at the very notion.

"Or just… take a breath of fresh air? I can use a few minutes of peace."

"Hmmm. This is highly irregular, but… I suppose there's no harm in that. But under no condition do you light any smoking substance, legal or otherwise, am I understood? The plants, they… would not take well to it."

She spread her hands. "Absolutely. I just need a moment to unwind."

He motioned for the terrace door. "The benches are at your disposal. Please do not touch any of the greenery."

"Cool. I won't take too long."

She proceeded out back and sat down on one of the white wooden benches. The butler hadn't been exaggerating about the plants, they all looked exotic, tended to with great care and arranged meticulously. Most of the flowers and plants were species she'd never seen before. Probably all worth a small fortune.

"Miss? The remuneration." The butler stood in the doorway, holding a credstick.

"Thanks," she said, taking it and sitting back down. No idea how much was on it (it wouldn't be a fortune), but it was definitely welcome. Now she simply needed to wait for an unguarded moment, which she'd already chosen.

The bell rang, probably the doctor arriving, and when the butler strode to the door, she jumped up from the bench and disappeared down a narrow path between the greens, taking the utmost care not to touch any plants.

She was in the gated community now, and security would be much less thorough here. Only a few cameras, and no motion sensors. Entry alarms, definitely, but those would probably be her only real concerns. She crept from garden to garden, memorizing the building numbers to make sure she broke into the right one. The luxury of these damn places was amazing. Every single block had a pool, and some had tennis courts, miniature golf courses, and even one croquet field, which she only noticed after stumbling on one of those stupid hoops. What a ridiculous game that was. Now she had grass stains on her knees, ugh.

No alarms yet, that meant the butler had either called the cops quietly, or was in the process of unbolting the door to the doghouse. No matter, they'd never arrive in time.

Well. The dogs might. Kate could only hope he'd called the cops.

Number twenty-four, this was the one. Top level. It was a bit much to call the highest level of a three-storey building 'the penthouse'. The lights were out, that was a good sign. Meant the occupants were probably sleeping. Made sense, it was already three in the morning, probably.

No motion sensors in the garden of number twenty four. A swimming pool yes, of course. She looked up against the wall and saw plenty of ledges, slits, and precipices to grab. Easy to get up there. She started the climb, quickly and decisively hoisting herself up and higher, her muscles not really stronger, but possessing more endurance and efficiency. She cleared the first two floors and quickly vaulted over the balcony of the top level, finding herself on a cozy penthouse garden, small but luxurious. She had a feeling this garden furniture wasn't regular plastic.

She crept towards the terrace door, quickly ducking behind a big earthen decorative pot when she saw the blue-red strobe lights coming down the street below her. A Lone Star patrol, doubtless called by the friendly butler. The cruiser stopped in front of the Russian hussy's house and two patrolmen lurched forth, clearly over the moon about having to answer the call and go looking for some nobody in the fancy Peak Road gardens. Good luck, fellas.

They'd never think to look for her here, unless she was dumb enough to set off the alarm of course. Not doing that was the best course of action. A decker would have been worth his or her weight in gold right now, but of course, there was no such thing as an ideal circumstance, so she'd have to jimmy the alarm somehow. Kneeling down, she inspected the terrace door frame. There was a tiny sensor in the lower right corner. She knew those, it was the same type her old employer back in the UCAS had used for security of only marginally important locations, like offices, meeting rooms, all the low-sensitivity places. The ones she'd usually had to guard. These types of sensors were pretty easily blinded by popping off the little cover and picking the wire loose. With her fingernail, which was arguably not the most ideal instrument, Kate dug at the wire until It came free, then she twisted it a few times until it snapped.

Sensor down. How such rich people secured themselves with such cheap shit was beyond her. Kate stole a quick glance toward the Lone Star cruiser, which still stood there, its red-blue strobes blinking. The two cops were still inside the house. Confident, she slid the terrace door open and slinked inside.

No motion sensors inside the building so far, and from the kitchen, she scooped up a sharp steak knife. Most people in the trids (and thus also in real life) made the mistake of always going for the biggest, longest kitchen knife they could find, but a smaller blade was far quicker to wield, just as deadly, and much less prone to bending or breaking.

She sneaked through the dining room, then quietly opened the door to what she believed was the bedroom. The fact that it contained an actual bed proved her right. She heard low, deep breathing, occasionally seasoned with a quiet snore. Her eyes were easily capable of piercing the darkness, and there was only one person lying in the queen-size bed, a male from the looks of him. Was this the one responsible for her infection? A CEO of all people? If it was, he'd be able to help her. And he'd be willing, she'd see to that.

Quietly, she crept to the side of the bed, holding the knife ready. She lowered it onto his throat, then pounced, hopping up onto the bed and its occupant, her free hand clamped securely onto his mouth. She saw the man's eyes fly open, but his yelp of surprise was muffled by her hand.

"Quiet! Quiet," she hissed. "I'm not going to hurt you, but I need you to stay quiet!"

The man struggled, but her weight was securely planted on him, and he could do no more than wriggle under his blanket.

"Knock it off!" She pushed the sharp edge of her knife against his throat to reinforce her message. "Stay calm and listen!"

The guy stopped struggling and looked at her with wide, terrified eyes.

"Alright. I'm going to remove my hand now. Can I do so without you screaming and alerting half the block and forcing me to cut your throat?"

The man's head went up and down quickly and in jerky movements.

"Okay. I'm going to remove my hand now. Remember, not a sound."

Slowly, she lifted her hand from the man's face, wiping the drool off the palm of her hand on his bedsheets. "Alright listen. All I want is some answers. Show me your teeth." She clicked on the night light.

The man's face went slack in incomprehension.

"Your teeth, damn it. Show 'em!"

Still puzzled, the man peeled back his upper lip in a panicky grin. They were normal. Perfectly fucking normal. Had the damn redhead pulled a fast one on her? "Fuck," she breathed. "This… this is Park Road number twenty-four, right?"

His head went up and down.

God dammit what was going on here? That damn firecrotch had just sent her to a random address, but why? Why feed her a lie if they could have just as easily said they didn't want to help.

"M… miss… if you leave now… I promise…"

"Shut up," she hissed at the sixty-year-old Hong Kong native. This couldn't be the one. He was a pudgy, dough-faced office boy with a comb-over. Hardly the type to be able to infect Kate any way possible.

"Never mind, bao bao. I think it's me she's looking for."

Kate whirled her head around and saw someone standing in the doorway she'd just entered through.

"N… No, my dear," the sleeper stammered. "Please, just… call the police. This is… just some robber."

Kate ignored him and got off the bed.

This was the person who'd infected her. Had to be. Leaning against the door jamb, wearing a translucent night gown around her slender body, stood a woman who looked only a few years older than Kate, with jet black hair tied back behind her head and then left to fall free in a black curtain cascading down her back. Her eyes were bright red.

This was her. She'd found her. "Y… you…"

The woman smirked and sensuously ran a hand through the ink black hair that fell over her shoulders. "Please. Don't stammer, it doesn't become you. What do you want, white girl?"

"Answers," Kate managed to say. The woman was beautiful but also almost sickeningly arrogant. Every bit of her exuded haughtiness and conceit.

"And what's to stop me from tearing you apart right here?" the woman asked, her sneer widening. "Our kind, we don't make friends, you know that. You found me, so it would be very unwise of me to let you live."

This was the right moment to drop the name she'd been given. "Yeah, well, you might find that harder than you think in the first place, but if that doesn't discourage you, then I'd also like to pass along the warmest regards of my friend Fire Ant."

The woman's eyes narrowed, and Kate could see her confidence slightly shake. "Very well. Come into my… special place, we'll discuss your questions." She turned and walked away, her hips swaying, but like every other movement she made, it was exaggerated, as if she was compensating for something. Kate followed her back to the living room, and from there to a side room, opened by a keypad.

"Please," the woman invited her in with an imperious smile, sweeping her arm at the interior of the room. Hoping the name of her patron was enough to stop this woman from tearing her apart, Kate went in.

The icy cold struck her like a fist and she felt her lungs almost collapse under its impact. This place wasn't just cold, it was freezing. And yet, somehow, it felt familiar. Comfortable, even as it made her shiver and hug herself.

"Drink?"

Was that some kind of sick joke? "You know we can't – "

"Yes, we can," the woman said, her smile thin. "We can this." She held a cocktail glass filled with thick, viscous red liquid. Ugh.

"No thanks. I try not to unless it's absolutely necessary."

The woman rolled her eyes at Kate's refusal, doubtless because it struck her as unbearably prissy. The room they were in looked like a sort of audience chamber. The only piece of furniture was a high-necked chair with a small cocktail table next to it. A bottle of blood stood on the table, looking like a vomit-inducing version of expensive wine. The woman sat down and crossed her legs, her nose in the air. Kate couldn't see specifics, but the night gown left little to the imagination as to her female shapes. "So, what do you want?"

"I just have questions that need answering."

She made a flourish with her hand, her face weary and annoyed.

"Did you infect me?"

She let out a contemptuous laugh. "Little girl, I infect lots of people. You honestly can't expect me to remember them all."

"Bullshit," Kate hissed, feeling her hands ball into fists. How dare this snooty bitch just dismiss her. "You'd remember me. It's only been a few days. The Walled City? Ring a bell?"

The woman made a show of searching her brain to place Kate's face, but Kate knew she remembered all too well. "Ohhhh yeah," she finally said. "Now I do remember."

"How? How did it happen?"

She snorted and took a sip from her blood cocktail. "Surprised you don't remember yourself. Most people remember their… _encounters_ with me."

"I had an accident right after. I can't remember that night at all."

"Oh." She sighed, bothered at having to indulge Kate, but eventually said, "It wasn't very glamorous or spectacular. You were posted in the Walled City. I was also in the Walled City. You came jandering up to me like you owned the place, told me to leave, 'for my own good'." She chortled at the phrase. "I was hungry, you were arrogant and stupid."

"Th… then what?"

Another sigh. "I stuck you like the little piggy you were, drained you and cast you off. I assumed you were dead, but apparently assumed wrong." She spoke about it at a completely casual tone, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

"Wait, you… you just left me there?"

She inspected her fingernails. "That's what I said, isn't it?"

"Did you… did you care about me at all?"

The woman looked at Kate and cracked a smile so cruel, it was clear she enjoyed answering. "No."

She didn't believe what she was hearing. This woman had all but murdered her and she didn't even feel a bit guilty. "How… how could you… how…"

"Aw, don't take it too personally. You were just a security drone. And me?" she raised her hands and made another flourish. "I'm none other than the mistress of the night herself." She scoffed. "How could I possibly care about every piece of prey I feed on?"

"This… this is…"

"What had you hoped for?" the woman asked with a mocking pout, "an apology? An expression of regret? Me falling to my knees and holding you by the hem of your skirt, crying? Please."

No longer thinking, not realizing this woman was doubtless more powerful than she could imagine, Kate marched up to the stuck-up bitch and socked her right in the face. Her fist connected with the woman's cheek and she was knocked over, sent over the arm of her chair and onto the blue carpet. The cocktail glass broke under her.

"You fucking deserved that one."

Slowly, the woman rose, blood dripping on the chest of her nightgown. "Little girl, you just made the last mistake of your life." Her face bore a snarl mixed with a grin. "Like I said, I'm not some random nobody. I am Ku Feng, and I'm the _mistress of the night_. Fire Ant and her crew aren't here to help you, but don't worry. I might just settle for beating you black and blue."

Kate felt her breath pick up speed. She'd done it now, she'd pissed off some ancient and probably incredibly powerful vampire, a creature she wouldn't stand a chance against. The woman stood before her, her fingers hooked into claws at her side, looking like a dark angel of incredible power and beauty. "H… hey look, you can't blame me for – "

"Shh," the woman hissed gently, bearing a lopsided grin. "Embrace the pain that is to come. Embrace the privilege of receiving the agony given by me."

Even though her teeth clattered and her muscles trembles in fear, Kate wasn't going down without a fight. Incredibly ancient evil or no, she would defend herself to the end.

Time kicked back into speed, and the woman let her mouth open wide, the fangs bared like those of an animal. With more reflex than conscious action, Kate threw herself to the side and dodged the bright green spray the woman retched up, the liquid making an arc through the air and landing on the blue carpet. She rolled over, leapt to her feet and returned the favour, sending burning acid up her esophagus and ejecting it right at the face of Ku Feng, who only barely managed to evade the projectile vomit.

As they both recovered from the effort of spitting, Ku Feng threw the heavy glass blood bottle at Kate, but she managed to deflect the thing with her arm, pain lancing up her ulna but the bottle otherwise doing no harm.

She half-expected the ancient vampire to use some kind of magic to obliterate her, and the acceptance of her fate made her calm, and able to think rationally even as the fight raged. If she wanted to have any chance of surviving this, she had to end it quickly. She brought her dukes up and socked the vampire in the face with a clean jab-jab-cross combination. Ku Feng staggered back, and Kate wasted no time, pistoning her foot forward in a hard front kick, sending her smacking against the wall.

She harboured no illusions. This creature would wipe her off the face of the planet when it felt the time was right, and all this was probably just her toying with Kate, but still, Kate would use what little moments this vampire left her to make sure she remembered her this time.

The vampire's claw lashed out, grabbing Kate by the short hair on the side of her head, but despite the pain, Kate managed to bring her knee up, kicking Ku Feng in the ribs, and she took advantage of the brief moment the woman was off-balance to pick up the glass bottle and swing it hard at the side of the vampire's head.

It connected with a hollow _thwock_ , and Ku Feng went down, her arms trailing behind her.

Holy shit! Holy shit, she'd actually taken her down! Kate's heart pounded hard in her chest, and she was giddy with relief, but she also realized she'd have to decide quickly: finish this creature off or run as fast as she could. She had her answers, after all, she no longer needed this vampire for anything. And perhaps it was best to –

"Stop, stop, stop, stop. Stop." The woman in the nightgown moved feebly, trying to prop herself up on her elbows. "Please. Stop. I've had enough."

… what the…?

"Please don't kill me. Please."

Kate had no idea what was going on. This ancient cosmic evil was begging for her life? Was it a trick? A way to get her to drop her guard so she could…?

Ku Feng managed to sit up, holding her head. "Look… I'm sorry. Just… don't kill me."

Kate finally managed to speak. "What are you talking about? A moment ago you were all 'mistress of the night' and stuff?" She really had no idea what was going on here.

"I'm… look," the woman said with a pained, ragged sigh. She looked tiny now, human. _Normal_. "That was all… just an act. I'm just," she had her hand over her eyes and Kate could see she was hiding tears. "I'm just a stupid accountant."

 _What?_

"I… I got drunk one night at an office party, blacked out and woke up… like this. I thought, if I'm going to be cursed with this, might as well act the part. You know, being enigmatic, being mysterious. Being hauntingly powerful."

So this whole thing had all just been a boast? Was this woman insane? For the same price, Kate might have been a psycho who'd killed her without a second's remorse. What a fucking stupid act to put on! "Are you nuts?" Kate asked. "What if you run into someone who isn't as kind as I am? Boasts like these are a great way to get killed. Jesus fucking Christ."

She held out her hand, using the other to hold the torn remains of her nightgown over her breasts. "Can you… help me up?"

Kate didn't entirely trust the situation, but on the other hand, this ancient evil was clearly laid low for the time being. She grunted, took the woman's hand and helped her to her feet. When Ku Feng raised her head, Kate saw the damage. Her nose was bleeding from both nostrils, one of her eye sockets was swollen, probably broken, and her lips were popped in two places. Kate helped her sit down in the chair, then unzipped her hoodie and laid it over Ku Feng's upper body. She knew what it was like.

"Thank you… I'm sorry for this, I… can't stop thinking that… that if I keep pretending long enough, it'll… actually get easier."

Kate crossed her arms. "That's the most idiotic bullshit I've ever heard."

She dabbed her lip. "Yes, well…"

Now, with the masks fallen off, there was a question that needed re-answering. "I ask you again, did you care about me?"

She sighed and looked down. "I… tried not to, and I didn't show it but… when you died in my arms… Or at least I thought you did… I felt guilty. Even though I pushed it deep down. So yes. I'm sorry."

"What happened at the Walled City."

"You'd have to ask Fire Ant and her crew. I only tagged along with them for a little while. But I do know that… they spoke of some kind of ancient evil god. By the time we'd progressed deep enough into the City, I'd gotten bored, so we parted ways."

"Bored? Sounds to me like you got scared."

Her red eyes flashed. "Yes, I got scared! Alright? If even half of what they said was true, there was plenty of reason to be. If you want to know more about the Walled City, go ask Fire Ant and her bunch. Now do you have any more questions or will you leave me to my shame?"

"Just one," Kate said. "Why the eyes?"

"I don't know. The HMHVV has a lot of different strains. Seems ours also reddens the eyes. And why it only happened to one of your eyes and not both, I can't say, so don't bother asking."

Not much in the way of real answers, but she'd seen her sire now, this pathetic lump of vampire. Kate felt sorry for her, in a way, but on the other hand, this whole thing had been her fault. And she realized there was no point taking pity – this girl had her looks, her confidence. She had a sugar daddy to provide her with all her material needs. It wasn't like she wouldn't bounce back from this. "Alright. Weird as it may seem, it was good having seen you. Just… knowing what happened and who did it to me is a load off. I should break your neck for gutting me and leaving me to die, but… how will that benefit anyone, right?"

"For what it's worth," Ku Feng said, the blood from her nose dripping onto Kate's hoodie, "I felt thoroughly bad about it when I had a moment to think."

"Good. Next time, be a bit more humane when you feed."

"Yeah."

Her questions were answered, her need to know was satisfied. She'd heard enough. "Well, I'd say it was a pleasure meeting you, but… Not really. See ya."

She took her hoodie back, turned and left the apartment, heading back to the taxi. Fire Ant and her 'brother' would have some explaining to do as well.


	7. Sixth Night, PM

**.**

 **Sixth Night, PM**

They were right on time, and Kate was on post as well. She had loads of questions and these two had better be forthcoming, because she was getting tired of not knowing, of people only giving her half-truths and withholding information. The two Runners didn't seem like a bad sort, but just like everyone else in this damn place, they had to weigh what information to impart and what to keep to themselves. Nobody trusted anyone these days. The adage "never, ever cut a deal with a dragon" they so loved using might have been more suitable when changed into "never, ever cut a deal with anyone".

"Hello again," the redhead said with a relaxed smile. Kate saw it as a good sign, meant the whole digging into her background had produced favourable results. "Did you meet our mistress of dark beauty?" The mocking undertone was unmistakable.

"Met 'er? Damn near killed 'er."

The Orc chuckled. "She'll never learn, will she? Still putting on her little show?"

Kate nodded. "Yeah. She became much more convivial after a few gentle taps to the face."

Fire Ant grinned. "You didn't hurt her _too_ badly, did you?"

"Oh, no, no, she'll be fine. I hurt her less than she deserved, that much is certain."

Gun Show nodded, completely serious. "I can understand the sentiment."

With a shrug, the redhead merely said, "She was just doing what she thought it took to survive. You never know what motivates people until you know them."

"Bullshit," Kate snapped. "Nothing excuses slashing an innocent person across the gut and leaving them to die. And I've been meaning to ask you… how did you know I was infected in the Walled City? And by this kooky accountant? I don't recall seeing you people there."

"Yeah…" Fire Ant said, visibly uncomfortable. "About that…"

"Look, we just have to be honest," the Orc cut her off. "Look, Katie, we uh… we saw it happen."

Wait, did they mean… "You saw what happen? What she did to me?"

"Yes." The guy raised his hands to try and get her to stay calm. "But listen, before you get angry, circumstances were – "

Kate felt her head lower and she grunted, "What did you see? Tell me exactly what happened."

Fire Ant sighed, brushed her red hair away from her face, almost looking like she was being deliberately snooty, and said, "We ran into Ku Feng just as it happened. You came trotting up to her, full of hot air, telling her to leave the Walled City because it wasn't safe."

"Then what?"

She told it like it was the most normal thing in the world. "She turned, hacked you across the gut, and drank her fill. We weren't in time to stop it or do anything, so it's not like we _let_ it happen."

"You could have checked to see if I was dead or not!" Kate shouted. They hadn't even stopped. Hadn't even stopped to check.

"Katie," Gun Show said carefully, "the situation was chaotic, the city was in flames, people were shooting each other left and right…"

Fire Ant continued, still on her casual tone, "… and when she cast you off, you were motionless, with your eyes open and your plumbing in your lap."

The Orc stared at his feet. "You looked dead, Katie. We had to move, try to save as many people as we could."

"And no offence," Fire Ant added, "but you weren't the first dead Tsang rent-a-cop we saw that day. Or the days before. In case you forgot, you guys were still the enemy. Shooting us on sight and all that?"

Wait, something didn't add up. She wasn't surprised she hadn't been told about the K.O.S.-policy regarding these guys, because after all, she was just a lowly security guard, but why had the policy been there in the first place? Her anger temporarily forgotten, she blinked and asked, "Wait… why were we the enemy?"

Fire Ant and Gun Show exchanged a surprised look. "Uh… because we'd broken into Tsang a few days before? The big data theft, you know, the one that went south and turned into a firefight?"

"The data theft… that was _you_?"

She shrugged. "Well… yeah."

The anger returned, doubling in intensity. Kate felt her hands ball into fists and her jaws clench together. "Do you realize you've killed seven or eight innocent people?" she growled through gritted teeth. "Just wageslaves, trying to make a living? People like me?"

"Yes, Kate," the Orc said. "And believe me, it weighs on me every day. It's… it was necessary, but I'll feel the guilt over it until my dying day. Because… I still see those guys as colleagues, even though I'm not Lone Star anymore. And I know they were just doing their jobs, that just makes it even more fucked up. For what it's worth… I'm sorry."

"It wasn't personal," Fire Ant said gently. "Please understand. We tried to keep it quiet, but when the alarms went off, we had to push through. There was too much at stake. Not nuyen or loot, but innocent people. All the people in the Walled City were threatened. The lost lives of your colleagues are a terrible thing, but it was only a fraction of the innocent civilians who died during the Walled City fiasco. And because we made that Run, we were able to save dozens, maybe even hundreds of people."

There was a whirlwind of emotions going on inside Kate, she wanted to tear them both apart for killing her fellow guards and for leaving her to die like a dog in the Walled City, but on the other hand, they looked sincere, and if what they were saying was true, then how could she judge them for having to take drastic measures? In disasters like these, too many people died or made things worse trying to save everyone. It was a numbers game, and you had to know which lives to save, which ones to leave, and sometimes, which ones to end. Rationally, she knew she shouldn't hate them for what they'd done, but her heart still throbbed with anger.

The best thing now would be to make sure she knew exactly what the context of all those tragedies had been. If her people had had to die, she needed to know exactly why. "I… need to know everything that happened at the Walled City."

The redhead let out a long sigh. "Fair enough. Come on, I s'pose there's no harm in letting you onto the Bolt Hole. We can talk in my cabin."

"I can trust you on this, right?" Kate said, not entirely eager to enter an old ship with these people, who were still responsible for the deaths of several of her co-workers. They might just want her off the streets to murder her in private.

"Katie," Fire Ant said, looking insulted. "If we wanted you dead, you'd be dead."

Gun Show nodded. "If anything, we're glad you're alive. A little less burden on our conscience."

"My brother likes to word things dramatically," the redhead said with a slight smirk, "but he's right. We're not just being nice to you, we're trying to make up for what we did, at least in some small part. Now come on, let's have a chat."

"It's cool, Katie. Really," the Orc ensured her.

Fine, then. She followed the two onto the ship and let them lead her into the interior. The inside of the ship was as run-down as the outside, but they'd seemed to make a cosy little home of it. The bridge had been repurposed into a common room, with chairs and even a grungy sofa set against the walls, and on the far side was a desk with a computer on top of it, a top-of-the-line model that looked out of place in the badly-maintained vessel. The screen currently showed its screensaver, a photo of Fire Ant and three other women, their arms over each other's shoulders, all of them smiling broadly, the sun on their faces. Fire Ant looked different than what Katie had seen from her so far, less aloof and reserved, and much more like a happy-go-lucky, fun-loving college student, her white teeth smiled bare. It was the same person, and yet she looked completely different. Younger, definitely, at least a few years, but also more open and warm. This was probably what she was really like when she wasn't weighted down by all this Shadowrunning tripe.

"Happier times, those," Fire Ant said with a wistful smile when she noticed Kate looking at the screensaver. "I miss those days, you have no idea."

"Old friends from school?" Kate asked, genuinely intrigued.

Fire Ant's face grew melancholic. "No, we uh, actually met in prison, in Seattle. I was a bit of a wild one back then," a brief grin appeared, then vanished again. "We were put in the same jail cell, started talking, and became fast friends. We were inseparable for a while. But then… you know, life happened, I suppose."

"I know how it feels," Kate said, but in reality, she didn't. Fire Ant motioned towards the sofa and Kate sat down. "Looks like, what, a few years ago?"

She nodded. "Three. We were like the Three Musketeers back then."

Kate chuckled, "There were even four of you, like the actual Musketeers."

"Yup. And just like the book, there were three of us, with a fourth joining later on."

"Okay, now I want to know more about it," Kate said, her anger left alone for the time being. She wanted to focus on something less gloomy right now, and the girls on the photo really did look intriguing. It'd be nice to have a chance to see more than the cold, distant leader persona this woman kept projecting.

"Oh dear," the Orc said with a grin. "She'll talk your ear off now."

"Shush you," the woman said, and looked back at the photo. There were four women on there, three of them bearing expressions so cheerful they looked like they were about to burst. The fourth looked peeved to be in the photo, as if she found herself too cool for trivial things like posing for a group picture. "Alright, so, the grumpy one on the left, that's Flare. She stayed in Seattle. Last I heard of her, she'd been following up on a friend's will, something to do with a serial killer who harvested organs or something. Nasty business."

"She doesn't look too happy to be in the photo."

Fire Ant laughed, and Kate saw a glimpse of the photographic version briefly shine through. "That's Flare, she was always too cool for school. The one who acts like this whole friendship thing is childish, but who secretly treasures it down in her heart of hearts?"

There was always one, wasn't there? "Oh, right. Your tsundere."

Her eyes lit up. " _Yes!_ Exactly!"

She looked the part too, with stark white hair parted to one side in a rebellious haircut, a crude but efficient leather outfit complete with chains and spikes, the visible part of her chest covered in tattoos, and a cigarette dangling out of the corner of her mouth. She wasn't good-looking, but somehow Kate suspected she didn't want to be either. "I know it's bad form to ask for the meaning of street names, but come on, why Flare? Is it because she uh, has a lot of flair?"

The Orc burst into laughter. "No, _not_ exactly."

Laughing along, Fire Ant said, "No, flair wasn't her strong suit, heavens no. No, she got the name from always rushing headlong into things, always storming at things like a bull instead of dosing her power so she'd be a whirlwind of destruction for a short while and then run out of energy far too soon. Her friend Coyote, that's the one who took the picture, by the way, always kept telling her that the flare that burned twice as bright burned half as long. Hence 'Flare'."

"Which is ironic," her brother imparted, "since apparently this Coyote chick is even worse at rushing into things without thinking."

"Then there's me," Fire Ant went on, nudging her chin at the photographic version of herself, "My nickname isn't as imaginative, sadly."

Kate shrugged. "It works, right?"

"Yup. You already know me, so not much to tell." She looked at the picture again and her eyes grew cloudy.

"Hey Richelle, maybe we should focus on the task at hand?" the Orc said, noticing her change in mood as well. "You know, keep our heads clear?"

"No, no," the woman said. Huh, so her name was Richelle. Kate always preferred real names to those silly street names. Neither the redhead nor her brother had noticed his small slip. "I'm not going to pretend they don't exist because it makes me feel bad. They deserve more."

Gun Show sighed. "Alright then. I just… don't like seeing you sad."

"It's alright." The two remaining women on the photo apparently had less pleasant backstories attached to them. They both had platinum blonde hair, but one had hers tied back in a ponytail, the other had the sides of her head shaved, the hair on top wild and unruly, and dyed with a single broad blue streak. The girl with the ponytail looked the youngest of the four, and she was gorgeous, looking like a supermodel with her bright smile, cute nose and flawless skin. The one with the shaved head looked a bit older, but she was still pretty, although the attention was primarily drawn by the cleavage window in the front of her leather suit, which showed off a considerable bust. "That's Dex and Mon. We met Monika through Dex, they were old friends back in Berlin, and Monika became like, our fourth musketeer. We didn't see her as often, because she was real busy back home, but every time she visited, we had loads of fun. And Dex, she…" tears appeared in her eyes. "She was the youngest, and people always assumed she wasn't too bright, because she had those supermodel looks, but she had a sharp mind, and a heart the size of the entire UCAS. She wasn't just fun and smart and good with her hands, she was… pure. She was like goodness compressed and chiselled into a cute young girl. Hell, she was even in jail due to a case of mistaken identity."

"You're uh… speaking in the past tense?" Kate remarked, knowing the probable reason, but still hoping to give Fire Ant a comfortable opportunity to either explain or decline to go into it.

"Yeah, they're… in a better place now," Fire Ant said, her lower lip trembling. "We were all close friends, but those two… they were like soul mates, even more than the rest of us. Monika always called her 'Ace'. It was cheesy, but sincere. We'll never really know how close they were, but…" she gave a short chuckle through her tears, "we all suspected there was more going on between them than just friendship." She sniffed. "That Run they did in Berlin, we all knew it was bad news, but Monika wouldn't listen. Insisted it was a milk run and that she was just borrowing Dex from us for a few days at most. I swear, there's nothing I hate more than the words 'milk run'."

Her brother stood leaning against the wall and sighed in agreement.

"They'd stumbled on… _something_ when they did the run, and Monika, she… they told us later on that when she tried to jack into the security system, there was some kind of backlash, and her… brain just… fried. So hard she bit off half her tongue." Quietly, she said, "They said her brain literally… came dripping out of her ears."

Kate looked at the photo of the busty girl with the mysterious smile on the right side of the photo, unable to imagine how she must have felt, and could say nothing more than, "Oh geez, that must have been…"

"Yes. It must have been. And Dex, she… she was shattered, but she wanted to get to the bottom of it. We told her to drop it, to let it go, but she said she had to carry on, for Monika and for the Flux State. There was a group of extremists who'd been trying to bring back an ancient evil dragon, or something, and she was determined to stop it."

"But…?"

Fire Ant took a breath, her lip still trembling and tears standing in her eyes. "She'd almost pulled it off, too, but when she came back from a meeting with some kind of A.I., the subway train she was on suddenly stopped. There were at least seven of them, all mercenaries for those extremists. The Runners that travelled with Dex saw the security cam footage. Apparently you could see Dex roll her eyes and raise her hands while those flashlights were on her, probably saying she'd come quietly, and then the guy leading those mercs, some huge old Orc, grinned and said something."

"Richelle – "

"And then they just… unloaded on her. All of them. Their guns on full auto. Just… kept the triggers down until their guns were empty." Fire Ant's face was hidden in her hands, her voice reduced to a peep. "They had to… they had to identify her by her boots. Above her waist…"

Fire Ant's brother put a hand on his sister's shoulder. "Hey. Richelle. Come on, don't do this to yourself."

Kate could only sit in silence.

"She was the best of us, Katie," Fire Ant cried into her hands, her shoulders hitching. "And I'm not saying that because she'd dead. She was the best of us." Her face reappeared again, her wrist wiping her tears away. "And they just shot her apart," she said quietly. "Shot her to pieces. Purely out of cruelty."

"Her Runners completed her job in the end," Gun Show told Kate. "Dietrich, Glory, Blitz and Eiger. They were troopers. Went on without her despite losing both Dex and Monika, and they killed every single one of them. The Orc got burned alive by the dragon they were trying to enslave."

"Geez, I'm… I'm sorry, guys."

"Right after those four Musketeers hooked up, my sister and I got mostly separated, only talking over the phone, so I only knew them superficially, but yeah… It was tragic."

"It was," Fire Ant said, her tears wiped away and her composure mostly regained. She looked at the photo and said, "I still miss you every day, you two. Every single day."

Kate could say nothing, letting the red-haired woman take a few breaths to return to her old self.

"Well," she said with an embarrassed laugh, "that showed a much more emotional side of me than I would have liked."

"It's okay," Kate said quietly. "I think I like you better when you're being genuine anyway."

"I sure don't," she said with a chuckle. "Anyway, since my brother already let my real name slip, might as well dispense with the street names altogether."

"Good idea," Gun Show said. "Just call me Duncan, instead of that stupid nickname."

Duncan. That sounded a lot better than Gun Show, definitely. "Glad to be able to call you by your real names, Richelle and Duncan."

Fire Ant shot a furtive glance across the empty bridge. "Keep it to yourself though. You know, for security."

"Mm."

"So," Richelle said, "Now that I've blubbed like a little girl, let's talk about the Walled City. First I want to apologize to you for the damage we've caused, but there was no other way."

Kate felt her heart harden again. "We'll see about that."

"Fair enough. So, the Walled City. It's all a really long story, but I'll stick to the essentials. Our foster father was high up in the Tsang corporation, you know, your employer."

"Former employer," Duncan corrected.

"Right. He was canned and later targeted for abduction when he got second thoughts about something called the 'Prosperity Project'." The name rang a bell, but faintly. She'd head scuttlebutt about something with a similar name but had never learned what it was about, only that it was secret and sensitive. "To put it succinctly, the Prosperity Project was an idea was an idea thought up by our foster father and Josephine Tsang, to calm a refugee crisis in the Walled City by building a massive machine that could filter negative qi into positive, making life in the Walled City more prosperous."

Kate didn't believe in all the qi business, but she knew Tsang did, and they placed exorbitant importance on it, going so far as to reprimand workers who didn't arrange their workspaces properly or moved furniture to places it wasn't intended to stand. One guy in accounts had even been fired for trading desks with another employee without permission.

"The Project went bad," Gun Show took over, "like those projects always do, making the qi even more toxic instead of converting it, and Raymond saw what happened. He wanted out, telling Josephine to dismantle the machine. Of course, she wasn't at all prepared to flush the millions of nuyen sunk into the device, so she simply tried to ignore the problem until it went away."

"What she didn't know, at least at first," his sister went on, "was that the Prosperity Machine intoxicated the qi not due to a technical defect, but because some kind of astral being had… I don't know, latched onto it? Got stuck in it? Whatever it is that astral demon lords do."

So it _was_ a damn demon lord after all! Kate knew of a cab driver who'd be slapping himself if he knew.

"Eventually Tsang did find out, and I suppose she decided to make the best of a bad situation, striking some kind of deal with the machine's inhabitant, siphoning off the good qi the machine did manage to produce for her company, and leaving the toxic qi to further rot the Walled City, giving the astral being time and energy to break into our reality."

"So who was the demon lord? Was it one of the Yama Kings, like some people claim?"

Fire Ant blinked, surprised at the question and the fact that Kate had heard of the Yama Kings. "Why… yes it was. Word travels quickly, it seems. Yes, it was one of the Yama Kings. Qian Ya, the Queen of a Thousand Teeth. Did you ever have nightmares in the nights leading up to the Walled City riots?"

As a matter of fact, she had. Many people had complained about nightmares and disturbed sleep, so much that the item had even been on the news, with the cause later explained away as a drug lab explosion throwing trace hallucinogens in the air. But this had been the real cause, apparently. "Yeah," she told the Runners. "I kept dreaming that my teeth fell out. So that was…?"

"Yup. The nightmares were a side effect of Qian Ya trying to enter this reality. And given her domain, well, no surprise that everyone dreamed awful things about teeth, heh. Had she gained entry into this reality, she probably would have made the Walled City her kingdom."

"At first," Duncan pointed out. "Pretty soon she would have found the Walled City too small, and you can bet she would have expanded as far as the world had let her. The world would have been in serious trouble, I'll tell you that much."

"We learned of all this," Fire Ant said, "just in time to intervene, but the night we confronted her, she had already succeeded in a few actual manifestations in our reality… this is what caused the Walled City riots. Toxic qi exploded in the City, and it turned people… crazy, I s'pose. This was all made even worse by the Tsang security forces, i.e. you, in the area who tried to both stop us from entering the heart of the City, and to maintain order at the same time."

"They succeeded in neither," Duncan said flatly. "We had to fight our way through your colleagues, through extra-dimensional horrors, and even through crazed citizens. In the end, there were Tsang forces as well as HKPF officers gunning down civilians, civilians storming security checkpoints, and planar monsters tearing people limb from limb." He shook his head. "It was a nightmare."

"Geez."

"You didn't witness most of it, because you were stationed in the outer ring, but you must have doubtless heard it on your radio. And yeah, by the time the riots completely blew up, you were, well… dead, but not really."

"Looking at it now," Duncan said, "It was probably for the better. They were things no sane person would have wanted to see."

"Mm."

"But yeah," Fire Ant concluded. "People were insane, all of them. Us too. The entire time I was there, I could feel this… craziness eating at me, trying to get me to do bad things. The Tsang and police forces must have felt it too. I can't even imagine how overpowering that must have been to the people who'd lived there all their lives."

Duncan shook his head. "Half the City was on fire, gunfire kept thundering from all sides, there were bodies and body parts everywhere. It was horrible."

Kate could _kind of_ understand how it would have been easy to overlook a security guard lying on the ground dying with her guts steaming outside her body. She understood enough, at least, to know she couldn't judge these guys for leaving her. They didn't seem like a bad sort, Kate was more and more convinced the more she talked to them, so she was grudgingly prepared to chalk it up to just an error in judgment. The virus must have kept her alive long enough for emergency medical help to arrive, but who had called it in, she'd probably never know. At least now she'd found out exactly what had happened to her. Slashed open and drained by some vampire, 'just because she could'.

"You have to understand, Katie," Fire Ant impressed upon her, "Even we weren't thinking straight at that point. All of us could feel the madness eating away at our minds, and we made some dumb decisions, just like your colleagues, the cops, and the citizens of the Walled City."

"Yeah, I… s'pose I'll have to give you the benefit of the doubt."

"That's all we ask. Now, Duncan and I have been talking and well, there's something we'd like to do for you in return."

"Oh?" This could be interesting.

"Seeing as how Tsang was our mortal enemy for a few weeks," Duncan explained, "we're pretty well informed of all of Josephine Tsang's doings. We've got some information that'll probably hammer the final nail into Tsang corporation's coffin, but before we deliver it to Kindly Cheng, we'll try to give you the chance to confront our good friend the CEO, concerning that unexplained order to bring her your head."

Ooh, this would be nice. It wouldn't be without danger, of course, but it might be her last chance to get it all straight from the horse's mouth. "Ah, awesome. So what do I do?"

"She's going to try and flee the country with her private jet in a few hours," Fire Ant said, leaning back in her chair. "We were thinking of crashing her party ourselves, but because we've got something to make up for towards you, you can tag along if you like. Only thing that matters to us is that she doesn't leave the country."

"Really? Cool." This was a big favour, she realized it all too well, after all, these were pro Runners, and they weren't prone to taking the risk of letting an unaffiliated person join them.

"Don't get the wrong idea, though," Fire Ant said, "it's not some big shootout we're expecting. We'll just be performing some minor acts of sabotage on their fuel systems."

"And maybe blow up the plane at some point or other," Duncan added with a grin.

This might be a problem, Kate realized. She wrung her hands and said cautiously, "Can I make one little request though?"

"Sure."

"No killing?" She knew it was a tall order, but she didn't want to be a part of any operation that might end in people dying. Well, except maybe the Cleaners. Because seriously, fuck those guys.

Fire Ant sighed, thinking, but her brother seemed to see no problem. "No killing's fine if we can help it. There's been too many people dead because of Tsang already."

"Yeah, fine," Fire Ant agreed. "But if we have to defend ourselves, I can't guarantee we won't use lethal force. I mean, you understand, right?"

"Yeah, I do," Kate had to concede. "As long as you don't actively look for or incite violence."

"We're not violent people by nature," Richelle said with a smile. "So if we can do it without bloodshed, so much the better."

"It's just going to be the three of us, though," Duncan told his sister. "Gobbet doesn't want to work with strangers, and Iz can patch into the airstrip's software without needing to be present. Racter's busy and Gaichu's nowhere to be found."

Kate had no idea who these people were, but it wasn't hard to figure out that they were probably fellow Runners.

"Well, unless you have some more questions," Fire Ant told Kate, "We can get ready to leave. Do you have anything in terms of weapons and equipment?"

"No," she had to admit sheepishly. "Your bitch-ass fixer took all my stuff except my spare clothes. I had an SMG, but that's gone. So's my money."

She nodded. "I've got some stuff you can borrow. Not the professional gear you're probably used to, but still decent. You can use my old FN HAR, and I think Duncan's got a bullet-resistant jacket lying around… right dear brother?"

"Sure do. Might not be your size, but…"

"Sokay, I'll take what I can get."

"Right. Let's get you outfitted, and then we'll pay Josie Tsang a visit."

For better or worse, tonight was her only chance to find out why she needed to die, and her only chance to put a stop to it.


	8. Sixth Night, AM

**.**

* * *

 **Sixth Night, AM**

* * *

Taking the subway with spoofed IDs was probably second nature to these Runners, but to Kate it was a stressful and tense experience, and she spent the entire ride nervously looking around, hoping not to see anyone in a uniform walking down the car to check people's tickets. Fire Ant assured her it'd be fine, but Kate hated things like these: sitting and waiting and hoping nothing went wrong.

The ride was uneventful, however, and the MTR's Airport Express line dropped them off at Hong Kong international airport. Attached to the public travel facilities were several private airstrips owned by corps, to let their private jets take off and land without having to bother with procuring a slot or sharing aprons with public passenger liners.

Kate had to grin to herself when she realized she'd sent the Cleaners to this exact spot a few days ago, and now she was actually here.

As they walked, Duncan spontaneously played tourist guide, explaining to Kate how the airport had been built on land that had been reclaimed from the sea, an artificial island as it were, and how it was the world's most prolific cargo hub, as well as one of the busiest passenger traffic centres, with its terminal having been the largest passenger terminal in the world for a long time, until New Moskva airport built a bigger one. Always the damn Russians.

He went on about Kai Tak airport, which was long closed, but which had held the dubious honour of having one of the most dangerous runways in the world, the infamous runway 13, with pilots reportedly sweating bullets whenever they had to land at Kai Tak, since the runway wasn't all that long and ended straight into the sea, and was surrounded by high-rise buildings to boot. It literally needed a marker painted on a mountain face to provide a visual cue for the pilot to make a specific turn and begin his approach. Once the plane passed the marker, it was the point of no return and the pilot had to pray he'd started his approach right, as well as fight the strong and unpredictable, constantly changing winds to set his craft down. There had been more than a few incidents with planes crashing or nose-striking, many of which had involved loss of life. Several had simply slipped off the runway and gone into the bay.

Kate wondered how bad the qi in that place would be, and just when she pondered it, Duncan answered the unasked question for her by saying that it had been turned into a massive housing block, which had to be abandoned when the Awakening happened, because it had quickly become infested with loads of vengeful and grief-maddened spirits and phantoms. No surprise there. It was an abandoned ghost district now, the high-rises inhabited only by wailing spectres.

Fire Ant kept quiet during Duncan's explanation, only smiling at his enthusiasm. The man clearly loved Hong Kong very much. They exited the station, looking not-at-all-suspicious with their sports bags. "So," Fire Ant said, "if anyone needs to go potty, now's the time."

Kate had to chuckle humourlessly at that. "I'm fine. I don't need to go to the bathroom anymore, remember?"

"Oh, I see. Can't let anything out if nothing goes in, right?"

"Right."

"We ready?"

Duncan nodded, and so did Kate, even though she wasn't ready at all. But it had to be now, or the chance would be lost forever.

Fire Ant looked around to make sure they were alone in the stairway. "Alright. Threats are fences, possibly electrified, cameras and guards. Let's hope there's no dogs."

"I'll be able to tell you that as soon as I can identify one of the guards," Kate said. "Only one squad has canine support, so once I know which squad is posted, we know if there's dogs."

"Alright. No magical aptitude in your company's security division?"

"None that I know of," Kate explained. She added cynically, "if they did, they wouldn't be lowly security guards anymore, I s'pose. There were two, but they were in Dragon squad. Which means they were killed. By you."

"I already told you it was regrettable but necessary," Fire Ant said curtly, her eyes hard. "We can't waste time or effort on reproach."

Kate knew she was right, but could only manage a sigh in reply.

"Now. Iz will probably be able to disable the cameras once we hook her into the network remotely, which shouldn't be too hard. We'll just need to get close enough. Have you ever guarded this place before?"

"Me?" Kate snorted. "No, I was Hound squad, the underperforming loser division. Only places I got to guard were empty hangars and overheated basements."

With a grin, Duncan said, "You're not inspiring much confidence in us here."

"Don't worry," she replied, "We underperformed because we didn't work as a unit, not because the members were incapable."

"Fair enough," Fire Ant said. "But it means we'll have to be careful approaching the cameras. Once that's done, we'll just have to climb the fence, disabling the electrical current if necessary, and avoid the guards. When we get to the plane, we'll see how we approach it. Objectives are one, to stop the plane from taking off, and two, to give Katie-kins some alone-time with Josie."

"We'll get it done," Gun Show merely said. "We always have."

"Damn straight."

They walked towards HKIA's terminal building, but took a left towards the private jet services buildings, walking past the opulent and disgustingly luxurious lounges until they reached the one with a yellow pagoda logo above the door. Obviously going in through the front door was a bad idea, but they knew where the plane would be, just about. Now all they had to do was make it airside. There was a strip of barbed-wire fence between the Tsang lounge and the Wuxing one (that must be some fine conversations between those two), but a camera was mounted right above it, in such a way that approaching it, no matter how, would get them spotted.

"Wouldn't it be funny to go in right through Wuxing's lounge?" Duncan remarked. "The irony of pulling the wool over Wuxing's eyes to hammer the final nail in their rival's coffin would be exquisite."

Fire Ant contemplated the idea, and finally nodded. "Wouldn't be the first time we infiltrated Wuxing's buildings. They'll probably be dealing with terrible qi in their main building for a few more weeks."

"Let's hope there's no elemental spirits this time, though," Duncan remarked, recalling whatever it was they'd been doing on some previous run.

"We can't just walk in, though," Kate pointed out.

With a smirk, Fire Ant said, "Sure we can. You haven't seen me at work yet."

Duncan grunted, "She could sell ice to an eskimo."

"Inuit," Kate said absently.

"Trust me," Richelle said with a confidence-inspiring smile. "I'll sweet talk my way in there. All we have to do is get past the reception desk and be left unattended."

Like she owned the place, Fire Ant brazenly walked in through the double doors, surveying her dominion as the glass doors slid open. The Wuxing private jet lounge was as luxuriously decorated as any other, with potted plants, soft music and even softer couch cushions. A modest drinks cabinet stood against the far wall, and a coffee machine was proudly placed next to it. Real coffee, none of that soykaf swill regular people drank.

And against the left wall was a marble reception desk, with an immaculately groomed clerk behind it. "May I… help you?"

"Yes, you can actually," Fire Ant said, sounding utterly confident as she walked up to him. "We're with the Hong Kong tribune, to interview your CFO? He's arriving half an hour from now, isn't he?" It wasn't hard to tell how Fire Ant knew about the chief financial officer's arrival – it was neatly indicated in a timetable hung against the wall behind the receptionist.

"Indeed, he is, but… I wasn't aware of any journalists being invited?" His nose wrinkled when he said, "And you don't really… look the part either."

"What are you talking about," Richelle laughed, leaning on the counter. "We're journalists, we're supposed to look urban and messy."

"Still," the receptionist said back, not convinced. "I wasn't notified. I'll have to clear it with Wuxing Security. Please, take a seat while I make the call." He reached for the receiver of his phone.

"Come on," Fire Ant insisted. "Just take us to the conference room, we'll wait there and not bother anybody, that alright? Not like we can do any harm in there, is it?"

He harrumphed but withdrew his hand. "Do you have your press IDs with you, at least?"

Richelle made a show of patting her jacket. It looked ridiculous. "Drek, buddy, I forgot them."

Duncan played along, grunting, "Ugh, Jane! You forgot our IDs _again_? I swear, this is the last time you're in charge of logistics on these assignments."

"It's not my fault, alright? If you'd taken them out of my other coat like I asked you to – "

"Oh, great! So now it's my fault, is it?" Duncan raised his voice, and the receptionist's nerves at the same time. "This is _so_ you, Jane! Always blaming other people for your errors."

" _My_ errors? I specifically told you to take the IDs out of my other coat! Specifically told you!"

"It doesn't matter," Duncan shouted. "It was _your_ responsibility!"

"Oh please! I ask you to do one simple thing and it's too much, like always!"

They were full-on yelling now, and this kind of act was nice in the trids, but Kate seriously doubted that it actually worked in any reliable fashion in real life.

"Okay. I need you two to shut up or I'm calling security to get you kicked out," the receptionist said, calm and final.

Both Richelle and Duncan fell silent, their surprise not feigned this time. They clearly hadn't expected such a clear-headed response, hoping instead for the receptionist to be so embarrassed that he just let them pass to avoid a further scene. Kate didn't mind believing that this trick worked on cheap hotel workers, but not these people. They were trained not to let themselves get manipulated into letting people in for no reason.

"I ask you again," the receptionist said calmly, "Your press IDs please." His hand was on the receiver of his phone, the thing already half-lifted. "If not, I suggest you leave."

It happened faster than Kate realized, but in one blindingly quick motion, Gun Show's arm swept over the reception desk, grabbing the Wuxing employee by the throat, and in the next moment, the man was half-pulled over his own counter, in a headlock. Duncan's biceps bulged as his arm constricted the man's windpipe, his other hand set against the back of the unfortunate receptionist's head.

"Don't kill him!" Kate snapped at him.

"Don't worry," Duncan grunted, inhaling so his chest expanded, cutting off the blood flow to the desk clerk's head as the victim's feet drummed on the polished wooden surface of the counter. It only took three seconds for the guy to go slack. "It's a blood strangulation, he'll be alright in a bit." He let the man slump to the ground and produced two pairs of cable ties from his jacket pocket, tightening the strips around the receptionist's wrists and ankles. Unceremoniously, he dragged the unconscious man to the back room, behind the desk, and dumped him in there, fastening him to a steel water pipe and then gagging him with his own tie. He was already moaning and trying to open his eyes, so Kate was confident he wouldn't croak.

"Let's go," Fire Ant said matter-of-factly as she wrote 'BACK IN FIVE MINUTES' on a sheet of paper and folded so it could stand up. "Seems he wasn't in the market for ice. Should have said we were here to view the tapestries."

They weaved through the hallways, avoiding one half-dozing security officer and sneaking around the back of another, until they found a door leading to an empty janitor closet, with the glass doors to airside in view. There, they donned their body armour and readied their weapons.

"We're out of casing mode now," Richelle whispered to the others.

Kate said, "Guys. The thermal drill. Go get it," faster than she realized. Both Shadowrunners looked at her, not understanding. "Nevermind."

"So. We try to make it to airside, then just sneak across this apron towards Tsang's. We still have time, departure isn't scheduled for two hours yet. We should be able to avoid the cameras on this apron, and approach the ones on Tsang's aircraft stands from a blind angle."

"Yeah," Duncan grunted. "Wuxing would never tolerate Tsang's cameras pointed anywhere near their piece of tarmac."

"So, we sneak out, hug the wall and get over to the next apron. Let's go."

After a quick glance up and down the corridor, the three crossed over to airside, the glass doors sliding helpfully open. It was calm on Wuxing's apron, the stand and taxiways empty, no workers crossing over the tarmac. "Camera, there and there," Fire Ant whispered, pointing out the surveillance devices set against the wall of the building they'd just left, looking over the apron. "We're under its arc for now. If we just hug the wall, we'll be fine."

"Dome," Kate whispered. "There." She hadn't been a rent-a-cop for so long to miss one of those, even as inconspicuous as they were. Those cameras were far more problematic, since not only could they rotate and zoom in, but they were also hidden in a glass casing, so you couldn't see where the camera was actually pointing.

"Let's hope the operator's not too dutiful," Duncan grunted. It was very possible that the dome camera would spot them at one point if its operator was currently actively using it, but they had to risk it. They crept past it, and no alarm sounded, even though Kate expected it every moment.

They reached the grassy skirting of the apron and crossed it to get to the wire fence separating Tsang's piece of tarmac from Wuxing's. "Not electrified," Duncan pointed out. He was right. Electrified fencing was required by law to have a warning sign prominently displayed, and even the corps obeyed that law, since the insurance claims were high as skyscrapers when employees or civilians fried themselves on an electrified wire that wasn't properly indicated.

Quickly, the Orc produced a pair of wire cutters, and click-click-clicked a hole in the fence. "Through we go."

This apron, too, was empty, the plane probably still in the hangar for refuelling or outfitting. Kate had no idea if Josephine Tsang was already present, and she suspected the two Runners accompanying her didn't either. "Camera," she whispered to the others, pointing out the device overlooking the hangar's airside doors, which were ajar, but not far enough for them to see inside from the angle they were at. "Electrical box there."

"Splendid," Fire Ant said quietly. "Hold on." She sneaked towards the fuse box, opened it, and attached a small device to its inside. Then she crept back and said, "One moment."

She produced her PDA and after a short minute, the dark-skinned Dwarven girl reappeared, the holographic head informing them, "Cameras are in the process of being looped. Just a sec."

They waited in silence until the holo said, "Done. Should be clear to pass through."

Looping the cams was definitely a better idea than disabling them outright, since it'd take a while for the camera operator to realize he was looking at looped footage, as opposed to immediately noticing the screens going dark.

"Thanks Iz," Fire Ant said, and put the PDA away. "Alright, we're hidden for a while. Let's not waste time."

They crept closer to the hangar, skirting the doors until they could peek inside. Kate stuck her head through the gap and saw two of her colleagues standing guard by a Learjet, their backs to them.

"You know them?" Fire Ant whispered.

Judging from the body shape of one of them, she was pretty convinced she did. "Yeah. That's Jie and Keung. Goat squad." She ducked back behind the hangar doors. It made sense, Keung and Jie often put in a few extra hours on close protection for Tsang bigwigs. The good news was that when they did, they often worked in a very small group, not the entire squad.

"How do you recognize them with their helmets on?" Duncan asked, puzzled.

Kate had to chuckle when she explained, "The woman's Jie. We called her the Boobmonster in the force. Trust me, we all recognized that bust size anywhere."

"Heh," Duncan remarked. "Boobmonster."

"Yep," Kate said casually. "The ones you guys shot had funny nicknames too." She immediately regretted saying it, but not entirely.

The others ignored the remark and Fire Ant said, "Well, that means no dogs, right?"

"No dogs," Kate confirmed. "But if Keung and Jie are standing guard, that means Sayuri's not far off. She can shoot the legs off a fly from the other side of the tarmac. I'd admire her if she wasn't such an ice cold bitch."

"Sniper huh?" Duncan said. "Means she won't be deployed inside that hangar, probably. If at all."

He had a point. The hangar itself wasn't big enough for a sniper to be of any real merit, and Sayuri was known for lazing around until she was called upon anyway. She was smug enough to feel too good for this kind of thing. If they could eliminate Keung and Jie without them raising the alarm, there was a good chance Sayuri would be dozing behind the steering wheel of the APC and the two or three additional team members would sit merrily drinking soykaf inside the vehicle without even knowing what was going on. "If we can incapacitate those two quietly and quickly," Kate said, "we should be alright. Keung and Jie always work as a pair on these close protection jobs with Sayuri and two or three guys as backup. The Tsang fatheads don't like too much security hovering around them."

"Alright, then we sneak closer and take them out."

"Take them out, as in subdue them, not kill them," Kate was quick to demand. "Keung and Jie are good people. Jie especially."

"We'll do our best," Fire Ant said, and made to begin sneaking towards the two, but Kate grabbed her by the shoulder.

"Not good enough. Please. Not these two, under no circumstance."

The redhead's eyes briefly flashed, but then she said, "Fine. We'll do our utmost, I promise."

"They're just people doing their jobs. As long as we don't get seen before we reach them," Duncan said, his tone calm and businesslike, "there should be no problem."

He had a point, but of course, theory and practice were two different things.

"Don't worry Katie," Richelle said. "We got this. But I don't appreciate you putting our lives at risk with demands like this."

"I understand, but this is important. Like I said, they're good people."

She felt Duncan's strong hand on her shoulder. "It'll be alright, we'll take care of it. Come on."

"I… better hang back," she said.

"Why's that?" Fire Ant asked, suspicious.

"Hand to hand combat? With all this HMHVV in my blood? No."

"Mm," the Runner said, thinking. "S'pose that makes sense."

"I'll follow behind in case you need backup." In a way, she was glad to. It meant she didn't have to confront Keung and Jie, and if things went wrong, she could blame the snooty redhead instead of having to bear the guilt of her own mistake. She looked on as the two slowly sneaked closer. Keung and Jie had their attention focused on the landside entrance of the hangar, Keung smoking a cigarette (on airside, naughty) and Jie talking to him like she always did. Kate could tell from the slight movements of her head and her hand busily gesturing. She really, really hoped these two Runners would be able to neutralize them without bloodshed.

She, too, began creeping closer, into the hangar, taking care to put as many obstacles between her and the two guards. There was plenty of clutter in the hangar, and both she and the two Runners gratefully made use of it. Kate's hands gripped the FN HAR nervously. She could only hope to shoot them in the leg if things went south. And even then, it was risky.

She lifted the HAR and lined up the post sight with the peep sight, making sure she had Jie's leg clearly targeted. She moved closer, carefully, but noticed that the Runners were already near striking distance. Duncan had a baton out and Fire Ant lowered her Ares Alpha, apparently planning to take them on bare-handed. So much the better.

They were only two arm's lengths away when Keung finished his cigarette and took it out of his mouth, giving it a quick look before turning to flick it away. Kate's breath stopped when she heard Keung shout, "Hey what the – ", but before he could cry out, Fire Ant whipped her arm over her head, and with a metallic snapping sound, a long, thin length of gossamer flew through the air in a flourish. At the same moment, Duncan leapt forward and thrust his baton into Jie's belly as she turned and attempted to raise her weapon. Kate saw blood explode from Keung's hand, and his weapon fell to the ground, while Jie began convulsing and shaking, making an awful sound, like a pig squealing. She'd seen shock batons in action before, even used them a few times, and the sound was always the same, but it was so much different when it came from someone you knew.

Jie fell over, her legs kicking and arms spasming, while Keung tried to draw his side-arm with his left hand, his right spraying blood. "Don't," Fire Ant merely said, her weapon aimed at his forehead. "I don't care if I have to shoot you, but it'd make my friend upset. So don't. Don't cry 'alarm' or 'contact' either."

"She's right, Keung," Kate called out, coming out of her hiding spot. "Please, just… surrender. I don't want anything to happen to either of you."

Keung seemed undecided for a moment, but he finally took his left hand away from his sidearm and instead used it to cradle his bleeding right. As soon as he did, Duncan stepped forward, removed the pistol from its holster, and pulled his helmet off his head. Then he did the same to Jie, who was still dazed and twitching on the ground.

"My… my hand, you…" Keung started to grunt, but Kate stopped him. "I know, I'm sorry, but the alternative was killing you both. Is it… is it bad?"

He held up his hand with a furious but silent glare, showing Kate the missing ring and little finger, and the bisected metacarpals. Blood ran liberally down his forearm.

"Oh, geez, I'm sorry. But at least – "

"I'm alive? Yeah. _Thanks_ , Kate, for the perspective. Really."

"I'm… sorry. Jie, are you alright?"

She wasn't really in a capacity to speak coherently, but she tried nonetheless. "Gh… I'm… feel like… gonna barf."

"It happens," Duncan said, like it was the most normal thing in the world. "Go ahead and let it go if you need to. It's not our hangar after all."

"I'll b… be fine."

Kate stepped forward and helped her up. She was still twitchy, but improving rapidly. "C… can I…?" She motioned to Keung.

"No," Fire Ant said curtly. "Duncan, cable tie them."

"Wait, what?" Kate interrupted. "He's seriously hurt. Ri… Fire Ant, if she doesn't take care of him, he might bleed to death."

"Can't take the risk," Richelle said flatly. "They might have weapons or comlinks they can access while she treats him."

"N-no, look," Jie pleaded. "I'm just – ngh! – just going to treat him. I pr- promise." Her round face looked at Kate. A twitch briefly closed her right eye. "Please, Katie, when y- you were…"

"I know," Kate said. "Guys, I take responsibility."

"Oh, you take responsibility?" the redhead barked, still keeping her weapon trained on the two guards. " _Well_ , then that's alright isn't it? If this run turns into a gunfight and we all get killed, everything's fine, because _Kate takes responsibility_."

"Look," Kate snapped back, "They did the exact same thing for me when I was in trouble. They took me at my word and rushed over to help, even when I could have been dangerous. I _know_ these people. If they say they won't try anything, they won't." Keung was still bleeding with no signs of stopping, and he would be in trouble without medical help. "So either you treat him, or Jie does. I promise, they're good for it. They won't try to attack or escape or alert anyone." She looked back at the two. "That includes calling for Sayuri, alright?"

"Promise."

Silence fell in the aircraft hangar, the only sound the low drone of the ventilation.

"She's right," Duncan finally said. "If they do sound an alarm, they'll be the first to be gunned down anyway, so unless they're dumb, or exceptionally willing to die for a corp that doesn't care about them, they won't risk it. But I leave the decision to you, sis."

Fire Ant stood there, her weapon still trained on the two guards, and licked her lips. "Fine. Fucking… fine. But _one wrong move_ , and – "

"No wrong moves," Jie quickly assured her. "I promise. Now, I'm going to reach for my medpack, it's on my lower back. I'm going to slowly take it off and open it, and then I'm going to take care of Keung, is that alright?"

" _Slowly_."

Jie nodded. "Slowly."

The seconds were intense. Kate was certain they wouldn't try anything, but she was still dreading that Jie would make a sudden movement and Richelle would have a hasty reaction. She felt sweat sting into her eyes.

Nothing happened. Jie slowly opened the medpack to show it only contained medical supplies, and after a nod from Richelle, she went to work, both kneeling down and Keung letting her apply a compress and bandage to his hand. He tried not to show it, but he was clearly in great pain. Kate felt for him, but she was mostly glad nobody had died. The compress and bandages were soaked through with red almost immediately. "It's not as bad as it looks," Jie told him quietly. "I've applied a coagulant, it'll stop bleeding soon." She also injected a clear fluid straight into the raw flesh before sealing the bandage. Kate had to wince at the sight, but she also realized the pain from a small needle would be almost imperceptible compared to the ruin of his hand.

"Good," Fire Ant said quietly. "Now we'll stash you somewhere safe and wait for Josie to show up."

Her brother moved closer, and passed behind Jie's back. He pulled her arms behind her and there was the typical sound of cable ties being fastened.

"Wow," Fire Ant remarked at Jie's pushed-out chest, a bit more relaxed with her tied up, "No wonder the guys at work call you the Boobmonster."

Kate felt like a volcano had erupted in her chest, she tried to make a face at Fire Ant to stop her, but of course, it was way too late for that.

Jie's mouth fell open. "They call me the B- you call me the Boobmonster?"

Keung's face showed nothing but pure embarrassment, and he looked the same way Kate felt. And probably looked. It was absolute taboo to tell people about their own nicknames in the force. Even people who were really close – like Keung and Jie – upheld that tradition, usually because the nicknames tended to range between 'disrespectful' and 'downright insulting'. Even the more popular members, like Jie, had a suitably irreverent nickname. It was all in good fun of course, but the 'owner' of the epithet never thought so when they heard it.

'Boobmonster' was a great example. It was a fun nickname to use, but on the other hand, Jie was very likely to consider it hurtful since not only did it reduce her to nothing more than a bust, the 'monster' part would definitely make her do a double-take.

"Uh, well, umm…" Kate only managed to mutter. "We… I mean, it's not like _I_ thought of it."

"Or uh, me," Keung said quietly.

"I mean, I know I'm uh… generously proportioned, but what's with the 'monster' part?"

Kate and Keung exchanged an insecure glance, the gravity of the situation and Keung's injury all but forgotten, the focus solely on the nickname malarkey. "Well, uh…" Kate stammered while Fire Ant looked on, visibly amused, "It's just, um… it just sounded funny."

"Yeah," Keung said. "It's just fun, nothing bad."

Jie's eyes flashed. "Does it sound funny to know that they call you the Fridge?"

After a brief moment of silence, during which Keung let the nickname sink in, he simply said, "I dunno. Could be worse I guess. I can take a joke, you know? It's kind of a compliment, in fact."

Jie harrumphed. "I suppose. Be nice if people didn't just consider me a pair of boobs, though."

"Aw, Jie, they don't," Kate said, meaning it. "Everyone thinks you're great, really. The Boobmonster thing is just, you know, people being immature, like all nicknames."

"Hmph."

"Can we uh, get on with it?" Duncan asked, clearly not understanding why this entire conversation was taking place. "I mean, it's cute that you all want to discuss nicknames, but uh, we've got a job to do here."

"Aww," Fire Ant said with a grin, "and I was just having fun."

"Come on," Duncan said with a roll of his eyes. "Follow me, I'll secure you somewhere safe and not too uncomfortable."

"Oh, wait, wait!" Fire Ant stopped them, almost giddy. "Before they go, before they go!"

Her brother stopped, holding both guards by an elbow each. "R… Fire Ant, this isn't the time."

"Oh shush," she giggled. "I wanna know, what was Kate's nickname?"

Yeah, that was right, she'd never known her own nickname. She'd never really stopped to realize. It'd be a nice occasion to know, but on the other hand, oh man, it was something to dread, seeing as how Keung and especially Jie were the more popular and respected members of Tsang Sec and she was, well… not so favourably viewed.

Jie and Keung looked at each other, unsure. "Um," Jie said, "I don't know if…"

"Come _on_ ," Fire Ant prodded. "it's all in good fun, right? Like 'Boobmonster'? Huh? Good fun, right Katie? Right?"

This woman was clearly hoping to humiliate her, probably to get her back for semi-demanding to expose themselves and not kill Keung and Jie, but on the other hand, Kate was pretty curious, even though the cat knew what the consequences of curiosity were. She sighed and said, "Fine, let's hear it." It'd probably be something unimaginative like Polak or Eurotrash or Roundeye or Longnose.

"Um," Jie said, "I really don't think – "

Keung interrupted her by stating flatly, "It's Earcrust."

Kate thought she'd misheard at first, and her would-be source of vexation also blinked, nonplussed. Jie just looked at her partner in reproachful disappointment.

"Uh…" Kate asked, "Earcrust?" What the Hell did that mean?

Jie said, hesitating, "You uh… really need to clean your ears more often, Katie."

Oh God. Another volcano erupted in her chest. Earcrust, oh geez, that was disgusting! If she could have, she would have sunk right through the floor. Her head felt red hot in embarrassment. They'd been calling her that all this time. She'd hoped for something barbed-but-fun, but this? Ergh. Why hadn't anyone ever told her?

With a grin, Fire Ant remarked, "That's hilariously gross."

Duncan had to add, "And I thought Gun Show was bad."

There was only one thing to do: try to make everyone forget this as soon as possible. 'Earcrust'. Fuck. "Guys, can we get a move on? We're still trespassing with two hostages. And I'm still K.O.S. by the owner of this god damn hangar."

"You're right," Fire Ant said, but the mischief in her eyes suggested she wasn't going to let this go any time soon. "We'll stash these friendly neighbourhood mall cops, and then wait for Josie. Katie, what about that Sayuri chick? The one you were giving us an earful about?"

"Oh har har," Kate grumbled. "Yeah, she's probably lazing in the APC." Jie helpfully gave a slight nod. "But when the CEO arrives, she'll definitely activate. Probably going to pick a perch to sweep the area for anyone with portable anti-aircraft weapons." Kate hadn't been on these kinds of jobs yet (they were reserved for the actually capable agents), but she knew the procedure. They were living in an age of man-portable SAMs, and it wouldn't be the first plane containing a VIP to get a missile up the exhaust pipe. "Anyone else here apart from Sayuri?" she asked Jie and Keung. "Please tell us the truth, for their safety too."

"Just Flopper."

See, Flopper. Now there was a good nickname. The guy was badgering people to play some card game every chance he got, 'Tragic: The Garnering' or something like that. That had gotten him the nickname Captain Cardflopper, which had then been reduced (in several stages) to Flopper. Specific, descriptive and slightly disrespectful without being insulting. Not like 'Earcrust'. Oh god. It felt as though her ears had been full of gunk from the moment she'd heard the nickname, and she had to resist the urge to scoop her fingernail into her ear constantly.

"Alright. We should make sure they're incapacitated too. No killing, remember?"

"I remember," Fire Ant replied with a frown.

"No need."

All heads whipped around to see where the voice came from. What Kate saw made her heart sink. At the landside entrance to the hangar stood a man Kate recognized all too well.

"What the…"

"Who's this guy?" Duncan asked, raising his weapon.

"I don't know," Fire Ant said back, but her Ares Alpha went up just the same.

It took Kate a moment before she could stammer, "… Phillip?"

"You know this guy?" Duncan asked, his fingers flicking over the grip of his assault rifle.

"Yeah he's… a friend. Or… _was_ a friend?" Had he sold her out? Had his whole declaration of love been a scheme to get her to trust him? But then why? All kinds of theories raced in her head, one more outlandish than the other. Maybe they'd been intending for her to free herself, so she could lead them to these Shadowrunners? It was possible, and it would make this moment the Plot Twist where she realized she'd been played for a fool all along.

"This is a trap, this is a fucking trap," Fire Ant growled through clenched teeth. "Kate, if you set us up, then so help me – "

"No, no," Kate shouted quickly, "I swear. Phillip, what are you…?"

But then she saw his face, bruised, bloody and broken. He slowly raised his hands and was shoved forward. Behind him, pointing a pistol at his back, was a woman. Fat, dwarven, and wearing a shiny chrome mask, the hairs around it black with white wings at the temples. The mask was shaped into a featureless face, making it look exceptionally creepy. Kate realized why she wore it.

"I'm sorry, Katie," Phillip said quietly. "When they hurt you enough, you tell them everything they want to know."

"Oh, Phillip," Katie moaned. "Don't be sorry, I should be the one who's sorry, look at what they did to you."

His face was swollen, black and blue, and his nose was clearly broken, his eyebrow and lips split. The Orca shoved him forward and they approached, Phillip limping and clearly in serious pain. Kate's heart broke to see him like this.

"Who's the fattie?" Fire Ant snapped.

"That's – "

"I'll introduce myself, thank you," the Orca shouted. "I am Madam Ya, the deputy chief of security at Tsang Corporation. The erstwhile boss of that… _thing_ over there."

"Cute mask," Fire Ant remarked, her weapon still aimed at the two new arrivals. "Going for the T-1000 look?"

"Shinier than the plastic one we chased a while ago," Duncan added.

The Orca ignored the comment and said, "Well, it seems the jig is up, Breziki. Lower your weapons or you're getting you loverboy's brains all over your face and chest."

"Madam Ya," Jie began to protest. "What are – "

"Shh, dear. You let yourself get captured like a moron, you don't get to talk."

Jie shut up.

"Think about what you're doing here, Madam… Ya, is it?" Duncan said calmly. "This guy, whoever he is, is your only bargaining chip. You shoot him and we're emptying our mags at your shiny mask."

"That would make sense," the Orca admitted, her voice dulled by the mask, "if there wasn't a sniper rifle aimed at your tusker head right now. I'm sure this Polish cunt can enlighten you concerning the skills of Sayuri Yokoyama."

"So hold on," Fire Ant said, "What the fuck is going on here? Who's this guy?"

"That's Phillip," Kate explained, her heart aching. "He's a detective at Tsang corp. He was supposed to interrogate me and then hand me over for termination, but he…" she looked at Phillip, who nodded to confirm he'd already confessed, "… helped me escape instead. I don't… I don't understand, you said there were no cameras in the elevators?"

"There were," the Orca answered in his stead. "Two of them, even. So you broke his face for nothing. Don't worry, he had no way of knowing. But it was pretty clear that your entire 'beat him over the head' scheme was a ruse when we had to suffer the sight of you two slopping your lips together in the elevator."

Kate ignored the looks of surprise that were doubtless being thrown at her from all sides. "But… Phillip couldn't have told you anything. He didn't know we'd be here."

"No," the Orca said, cruelty in her voice. "So that made inflicting pain on him useful for nothing more than a cathartic distraction."

Kate felt the anger rising in her chest, "I should tear your head off your shoulders."

"Oh trust me, you walking cadaver, you've already exacted vindication on me even before the fact."

The disfiguring scars she probably now wore on her face, and the agony she must have endured when they'd been inflicted did little to satisfy Kate's hatred. Every time she looked at Phillip's broken face, it only became more intense.

"So how did you know we'd even be here?" Kate asked, trying to shift her attention away from her own anger.

"Oh please. Do you think we didn't know such a tempting target, the CEO of Tsang corporation, would be too good for these Runners, or you, or both to pass up? We knew perfectly well that someone would try something to stop Josephine Tsang from relocating." She pressed the pistol muzzle against the back of Phillip's head. "Now, drop them, or he dies, and you soon after."

"Then you die as well," Fire Ant said, but Kate could hear the doubt in her voice.

"For me, death would merely mean being unable to fulfil my duty. Drop them. I will not warn you again."

"She means it," Kate said. "Believe me, I know her."

"Katie…" Phillip grunted. "If you surrender, we all die. She won't leave any of us alive."

"I'll leave you alive," the Orca said. "For starters. Maybe even those Runners. Maybe even the corpse you want to fuck. But if you don't drop your weapons right now, you're certain to die. Yokoyama will fenestrate all your skulls before you even know where she is."

They were out in the open, no cover anywhere close, they wouldn't have a prayer against Sayuri. And she would kill them, she'd already tried hard enough when Kate escaped from Tsang. She wouldn't miss this time. Maybe some of them could still survive this night if they complied. Kate sighed, closed her eyes and let her weapon fall to the ground. "Spare my friends, that's all I ask."

The Orca made no promises, and simply said, "You two as well. Now."

"What do we do, sis?" Duncan asked Richelle.

His sister gnawed her lip and finally said, "It doesn't matter, we're dead anyway. But either we die now, or we buy ourselves some time and maybe get a shot at turning this thing around. We comply for now." She dropped her weapon and said to the Orca, "You win, at least for the time being. Fatty."

Duncan stooped and gently placed his assault rifle at his feet, then kicked it away.

"Good. Now, tusker, untie my two security agents, if you please."

Duncan's face was a mask of anger, but he passed behind the two guards nonetheless and cut their ties. Keung and Jie promptly picked up their previous captors' weapons and then their own, training them on the two Runners.

"Yokoyama, you can join us here. Bring Becker as well."

Nothing happened for a while, and then Sayuri and Flopper emerged from between a cluster of aircraft stairs, Sayuri's rifle casually resting against her shoulder, Flopper nervously holding his shotgun.

"Now then," the Orca said, "we've got a few minutes to kill before the CEO arrives. There is something very urgent I should take care of first. Becker, tie these two criminals."

Flopper did as he was told, the handcuffs making their signature clicking sound as he tightened them, first around Duncan's wrists, then Richelle's. He gave them a short kick in the back of the legs to make them get on their knees, but looked none too comfortable with it.

"Keep your guns on them," the Orca told Keung and Jie. "If you're capable enough for that, at least."

Silently, bearing the indignity, the two did as they were told.

"Now then," the dwarven woman said with a short sigh. "Miss Breziki, the CEO wants a personal word with you, and she'll be the one deciding what to do with you when this is done, but before that, there's no reason why I shouldn't get some preliminary work done." She shoved Phillip so hard he crashed to the ground next to Fire Ant and Gun Show, and then holstered her pistol. "To… facilitate future efforts, so to speak." She reached into her pocket and held up a knife handle, letting the blade spring forth. Behind the unmoving chrome mask with its expressionless smooth face, her eyes were filled with malice, and Kate felt her mouth go dry. Something terrible was about to happen.

"Yokoyama, Becker… hold her down."

Flopper blinked. "Ma'am?"

Sayuri, on the other hand, moved effortlessly, but so quickly, Kate didn't even realize what happened before her arm was twisted so hard her back reflexively arched back, and her feet were blocked from stepping back, so she lost balance and went to the ground, landing hard on her back. Flopper followed Sayuri, grabbing her other arm and putting his knee down on it. Kate kicked furiously, but Sayuri's hold was unbreakable, and Flopper's sheer weight held her down on the other side.

"S… Sayuri," she tried to plead, "Please, you can't…", but her eyes only met the woman's ice cold, unfeeling face. The next moment, she felt the weight of the Orca on her abdomen, the dwarven woman in the creepy mask sitting down straddled on top of her.

Calmly, the chrome mask said, "Immobilize her head."

Sayuri's other hand immediately clamped down on Kate's forehead, the thumb and middle finger digging into her temples so hard all the muscles in her neck ceased to obey.

"Madam Ya," she heard Phillip's desperate voice, "I implore you to – " the sound of a rifle stock silenced him.

"Now then," the Orca said, bringing her mask closer. "There is something we need of you. We could take it post-mortem, but this way will be more… appropriate."

"Pl… please," Kate heard herself stammer. "Wh… what are you…"

"Don't worry," the Orca said, her voice low, "this won't hurt any more than a load of acid to the face."

The next moment, the knife plunged down towards her, and buried itself right above Kate's cheekbone. Kate felt nothing but pure pain and the horrid feeling of a foreign object sliding into her body. She heard herself scream, but even with all the pain, she was unable to free herself from Sayuri and Flopper's grip.

The knife began wrenching now, stabbing and sawing into her face, burying itself into her eye socket, and she felt her heels drumming on the concrete.

"Katie!" she heard Phillip's voice. "Stop! Stop this! Oh God stop!"

She also heard Fire Ant shout, "Be strong, Katie! Be strong!"

The voices were drowned out by her own screaming when she felt the knife reach the inner side of her eye socket, digging into her tear duct. All she heard was her own shrieking, a hysterical "AAAHHHHRRRRAAAAAAH!" that went on and on, out of her control, as she felt the sharp metal cut into her eye, the edge tearing through her ocular muscles and grinding against the bone of her eye socket.

Despite keeping her eyes closed, she saw red light come into the eye the Orca was cutting, and the next moment, she felt a snapping sensation as her lower eyelid, still hanging on by a strip of skin, was pulled off.

The knife came again, embedding itself in the upper side of her tear duct and sawing upwards, following the edge of her eye socket, cutting through the ocular muscles on the upper side. She screamed and kicked, but her head would not move, only her legs could lash out, kicking nothing but air. Even with the horrible pain, she clearly felt droplets of blood running down the side of her face, tickling the skin.

The knife had gone full circle now, and her eye was completely uncovered, the upper eyelid also roughly snapped off. With the ocular muscles completely severed, she could no longer move it or turn it away, and she could only watch through an orange haze of blood as the knife came back one final time, inserting between the bone and her eyeball, more screams deafening her own eyes as the blade began pushing, being used as a lever to lift her eyeball up.

There was a popping sensation, and the next moment, she was looking down at her own body, even though her head had not moved. Oh God oh God her eye had popped out. She saw the Orca's hand closing around her eye, and after a sharp sting of pain, the eye went blind.

Through the gruesome pain, she felt the Orca's weight come off her.

She was out of breath and unable to scream, and now she heard the silence around her as Sayuri and Flopper also let go of her.

Phillip was the first to break it. "Oh God Katie! Katie!"

She could only pant in pain, her mouth making a repeating, "haah… haah… haah…" sound.

"Stop that," she heard the Orca's annoyed voice. "You sound like you just had an orgasm."

Kate managed to open her remaining eye and saw, through a red haze of pain, the Orca holding up her other eyeball by the optic nerve. It dangled between her fingers. It was her eye, her _eye_ , something which had been a part of her, and this woman had cut it out. Even through the pain, she felt heartbreaking grief to see the poor little eyeball, all alone and separated from the rest of her.

"N… no…" she managed to croak, her hand weakly clawing the air. "M… my eye… it's… it's mine… g… give it back."

"Oh, _your_ eye?" the Orca scoffed, letting the little orb and its severed nerve drop into a sealable plastic bag. "Shows how much you know."

"Katie! Katie," Phillip began again, but the Orca gave him a hard, back-handed slap to the face. "Be quiet!"

With her remaining eye, she saw the two Runners on their knees, their faces pale and frozen in abhorrence. "Geez, Katie…" Fire Ant whispered. Their two guards weren't looking much better, horrified by what they were seeing. When she blinked, only one pair of eyelids moved, and it was a terrifying sensation. She brought her fingers up and felt nothing but a ragged, torn hole where her eye had been. Pain pounded through the entire side of her head.

"Madam Ya," Jie asked with a shaking voice, "Please, let me give her some medical care."

The Orca let the plastic bag slide into a satchel and said, "Absolutely not."

"B… but," Jie protested. "The exposed tissues… the air…"

"I said _absolutely not_."

Jie's mouth moved, but she made no more sound, unable to understand what was going on.

"Now," the Orca said. "You will take these two murdering criminals outside, and execute them. I believe the trees were cut recently, and the woodchipper is still in place. When they are dead, simply let the woodchipper do what it does best, and the bodies will no longer be our concern."

"Wh… what? But…" Jie objected, but the Orca immediately silenced her again. "Do as I say. These two murdered several of our people, they deserve a bullet to the head." She nudged her mask at Kate, still lying on the ground. "This one had nothing to do with that, and she's not your concern, she is mine. I'm telling you to exact justice and give these two a bullet in the brain for what they've done to your colleagues."

"Come on," Keung said to Jie. "Let's… do our duty and get this over with."

"B… but – "

"Be _quiet_ , Jie," Keung snapped. "We knew this was the job, we knew there would be times when we'd need to do unpleasant things." He put his helmet back on and gave Jie hers.

The Orca's mask nodded. "Good man."

Kate wanted to care about the two so much, but all she could do was lie there with her back on the concrete, her body powerless and feeling nothing but pain.

"Come on," Keung told the two Runners. "Get up. Move."

Fire Ant slowly got to her feet, gave Kate a sad smile and said, "Don't worry, Katie. It's not your fault."

Duncan followed, his hands still raised. "Maybe they'll let you live after all, huh? Try to convince them, to get out of here alive."

Kate couldn't even reply, but it wasn't the pain that made it impossible.

She heard Fire Ant say, "We'll be dead in a minute, but that won't make you any less of a big round ball of fat, fattie."

"Yokoyama, Becker, stay here. We'll wait for the CEO," the Orca commanded. As the two Runners and their captors walked away to fulfil their grisly destinies, her mask turned back to Kate. "But let me make this clear, if the CEO decides you need to be terminated, and she probably will, you're going into the woodchipper too. Except feet first. And alive. You'll get to see your own body being spat out as bloody chunks before you die."

Kate's breath stalled. She'd always known the Orca was an insufferable bitch, but she'd never thought she'd be so cruel and evil as this. Except… she remembered the words of Lăoshī, about metahumans and the Human Meta-Human Vampiric Virus. And it made sense now. The Orca wasn't just disfigured, she was going insane because she was infected. She was turning into a vampire, and metahumans who suffered infection invariably went violently insane, becoming mindless monsters. This was what was happening to the Orca. This was why she was so unimaginably cruel. The process was already underway and would only get worse.

And of course, the insanity would be the worst when aimed at Kate, who'd disfigured and infected her with the acid.

She tried to look at Sayuri or even Flopper for support, but Sayuri's face was as cold as ever, looking down at her with unfeeling contempt, and Flopper seemed to be coming more unglued with each passing moment. Neither of them would be any help.

"Take him away," the Orca told Flopper, pointing at Phillip. "Secure him in the APC, then await the arrival of our CEO."

Flopper grabbed Phillip by the shoulder, relieved to be able to get away from this insanity, and hauled him off. "I'll see you when this is over, Katie," Phillip called to her. "In this life or the next."

She managed to get to her hands and knees and croak, "I'll find you."

Tears welled up in her eyes when she heard the distant rumble of the wood chipping machine, the engine occasionally making a choppy chugging sound. Her two friends were dead and in the process of being ground into bits.

"There go your murdering friends," the Orca remarked. Then she clicked her tongue. "I should have gone along. Would have loved to see that tough guy Orc's limp body get ground to chunks. And see that redhead's pale skin get torn into strips too."

It was clear, she was going mad, becoming completely psychopathic. The old Orca had been a petty and malicious bint, but she never would have said the things this person now said. The Orca walked towards the exit, off to check for approaching vehicles. Sayuri still stood by Kate, holding her rifle, no expression on her face. How could she remain so cold after all this?

"Sayuri," Kate tried one last time. "I know you feel it's your duty to obey, but – "

"Don't, Ekatarina," Sayuri cut her off. "Please… don't." She tried to hide it, but Kate saw it nonetheless with her remaining eye: Sayuri's lip had trembled slightly. Even ice cold Sayuri was struggling. Perhaps if she kept it up, her resolve would break.

"Sayuri, this isn't right, you know this. This woman… she's not the Madam Ya we knew. She's mad. She's mad because of the virus. It turns humans into vampires, but they still retain their sanity, like me, but metahumans – "

"Ekatarina, don't," Sayuri repeated. "I can't help you. I just… can't."

She had to keep trying. "Why? Why can't you? Look at my eye, Sayuri. Look at it. Look at the… the fucking _hole_ in my face. They won't even tell me what I've done! They won't even tell me why. Are these the people you want to work for? This could have just as easily been you. You could have – "

"Kate. Listen," Sayuri hissed, her voice trembling. "I can't help you. I _just can't_. I can't tell you why, but I _just_ _can't_ help you."

She was clearly struggling, but despite the wobbliness of her voice and the trembling of her lips, she still looked as icy and aloof as ever. What had they done to this girl? Was it a mind control chip? Or something more mundane, like blackmail material? Or some kind of sorcery? It was clear that this wasn't just a sense of duty stopping her.

"Don't bother," the Orca ended her hopes of getting Sayuri to have a change of heart, and her last hope of surviving this night. "She's loyal to a fault. We made sure of that. Now, to business at hand. Our CEO is arriving now. She'll decide how your little fugitive adventure ends. But don't worry, she'll surely allow me to carry out the… practical side of it."

"Sayuri – "

" _Stop speaking to her_ ," the dwarven woman snapped. "I'm talking to you. Stand up, you wretch." She motioned toward Flopper, who hauled her to her feet and cable tied her hands together in front of her. Her face hurt indescribably, the air on the exposed flesh intensifying the already blinding agony only further. She had a hole in her face, a fucking _hole_ where her eye had been. And why? Why had removing her eye been so important? It made no sense. She struggled to stay on her feet, swaying from side to side, as the landside hangar door opened and Josephine Tsang strode in, flanked by two guards.

Kate had only seen Josephine once or twice in real life, but she recognized her instantly. The mousy face with the squinty eyes, the white hair tied back into a bun, the opulent white dresses she always wore… it was definitely her. Kate's last and only hope was to beg for her mercy. She wasn't as insane as the Orca, but she was practical and cold, and wouldn't think twice about having her shot just to spare herself any inconvenience, but she wasn't evil for its own sake, if Kate could somehow convince her it was advantageous to spare her, then maybe she had a chance.

"Madam Tsang," the Orca saluted, bowing for her CEO. "We have captured the last of the fugitive witnesses of the Walled City incident. I have taken the liberty of removing the evidence."

"So I see," Tsang remarked, her face scrunched up. "And made quite a mess of it, as well." The look she gave Kate was of unabashed contempt. "She's a bit of a miserable thing, isn't she? Can barely stand."

"She only eluded us for so long due to sheer luck, Madam."

"Hmm." She turned to Kate. "I don't believe we need to go over the reason why you and your fellow agents are seen as traitors, do we?"

"I… believe you do, actually," Kate croaked, struggling to remain standing. "Because I… I honestly don't know why you want me dead. I've always been a good employee. Always did my job."

"Oh please – " Tsang began, but Kate insisted, "Madam Tsang, I _swear_ I don't know what this is about. I had an accident, I don't remember much from that night, only fragments."

"Really?" Tsang laughed, but she stopped when she saw Kate's face. "… Really." She sniffed. "This is most strange. I actually believe you." With a shrug, she said, "Very well, even if you are lying, it'll only be a small waste of my time to indulge you. Please. Step into the plane with me, if you're going to die, might as well spend your last moments in some comfort."

Behind her, Kate saw Keung and Jie returning from their grisly duty.

"Madam Tsang, are you certain it's wise to – "

Josephine flapped her hand at her deputy head of security. "Of course, I'll have my two bodyguards, and it's not like I'll have anything to fear. Look at this thing, I'd be surprised if she doesn't keel over and die on her own."

"She is indeed worthless, but – "

Tsang silenced her with a held-up hand. "Enough. I said it'll be fine."

The contained fury even visible behind her mask, the Orca turned to Keung and Jie. "Are the two Runners taken care of?"

Keung's helmet only nodded, while Jie looked away. Kate had hoped they'd found their hearts, but she knew Richelle and Duncan were responsible for several deaths of her co-workers and that this would make it a lot easier for these two to follow orders.

The Orca turned back to Josephine Tsang and announced, "The two who led the Shadowrunner party which caused so much trouble during the Prosperity incident have been executed and turned into bloody pulp, ma'am."

"Good news," Tsang said with a smirk. "You've done well, Madam Ya. Though you needn't have been quite so graphic."

"I only fulfilled my duty. However, if I may request that in the event of this wretch's execution, I may be allowed to perform the deed personally, at my own discretion?"

With a doubtful face, Tsang told her, "No need, I have people for that. You needn't bother yourself with – "

"It would be a privilege, madam," the dwarven woman with the chrome mask insisted. "I humbly request your permission."

"Madam Ya," Tsang said patiently. "I know that this… creature is the reason you wear that mask, but surely – "

"It may be my last deed in your employ, or indeed in this life, madam," the Orca kept pushing. "I do believe I have earned this small right after my many years of loyal service?"

Tsang was pensive for a moment, and Kate took advantage of the moment to plead, "Please don't hand me over to that woman, madam Tsang. She plans to – " Pain exploded from the side of her face as the Orca hooked three of her fingers in her butchered eye socket and pulled. Kate screamed and staggered back, and when the fingers let go, she could do no more than stand doubled over, her hands over the ruin of her face.

"Madam Ya, _surely_ ," Tsang fulminated. "I will tolerate none of this barbarism in my presence. You… conspirator, step into the aircraft, but do take care not to bleed all over the interior."

Jie fumbled around and opened her medpack, taking out some gauze and holding it out to Kate. Josephine took it and pressed it into Kate's hand. "Hold that over the wound. There's no reason we can't be civil."

Kate gently held the gauze against the hole in her face, wincing. She wasn't bleeding as much as she should have been, but she knew why: the virus was exceptionally capable at protecting its host, and especially its host's blood supply.

"Now, follow me. Will you make it up the stairs?" The words were kind, the tone was sheer contempt.

Kate plodded up the aircraft's stairs, refusing to let anyone help her.

"Sit down," Tsang said, sweeping her hand over the aircraft interior. It was all leather and wood, and none of that imitation stuff either. Beige leather seats that looked more comfortable than anything Kate had ever sat in, varnished wooden furniture and of course a refrigerator full of spirits – real alcohol, no synthetic junk. "If this is your last day, you might as well enjoy the feeling of genuine leather under your backside."

How magnanimous of her. Still, she sat down in what was probably the aircraft's small conference corner, two double seats opposite each other, with a small table in between.

"Drink?" Tsang asked, trying to sound as welcoming as she dared. She made a show of remembering what a pointless question it was. "No, of course not. Nevermind. I'll have one if you don't mind."

Kate didn't give a shit what she did. "I just want to know why. Before I die." Because she was certain that this was how it would end. She had nothing to reproach herself for. She'd done everything she could to evade capture and to make sure no innocent people got hurt. The outcome sucked, but dammit, she'd given it a more than respectable try.

"Very well," Tsang said with a smirk, sitting down with the bodyguards flanking her, their faces obscured behind black visors. "What do you remember of the night of the Walled City catastrophe?"

"Only what they told me," Kate said, fighting against the pounding pain in the side of her face. "Some kind of Prosperity machine, bad qi, a demon queen which might as well have been the boogeyman, and a shitload of rioting, killing and looting."

"I see. Does the name Krait mean anything to you?"

"No. Unless I also forgot I'm a hot intergalactic bounty hunter," Kate said sourly.

Tsang wrinkled her nose at the reply. "So much the better. Let us just say that we had an arrangement with this person, and that due to this arrangement, a lot of people ended up dead in the Walled City riots. Hundreds of civilians."

"So? The public already know that mistakes were made."

Tsang leaned in closer. "They ended up dead because we _needed_ them to end up dead."

Wait, did she mean… "So, what, all these deaths were part of the plan?"

"Most of them, yes. Tsang Security couldn't be seen making its hands dirty, so those incidents were the result of panicked officers and bad decisions, but…"

"… You got the HKPF to do your dirty work for you." Oh God it all made sense now. Tsang needed the people of the Walled City thinned out because of all the bad qi, because the blame for that would end up right at their doorstep with the secret of the Prosperity Machine being blown. So many people in a place with such bad qi would mean more disasters, more blame for Tsang. "Because you needed to wipe out as many Walled City civilians as you could to limit the effects of the overpopulation and the resulting toxic qi."

Fucking Hell. Her employer wasn't just some greedy, unscrupulous megacorp, they had actually ordered the mass murder of hundreds, even thousands of people to sweep their dirty practices under the rug. She felt nauseous at the thought of merely having worked for them.

"It had to be done," Josephine explained, as if she was talking about the weather. "They were pointless people anyway, not important in any possible way. The riots would give the HKPF an excellent excuse to open fire on the crowds, because well, they _are_ the police, after all."

"You make me sick," Kate could only say. "Pointless people. How can you even say that?"

"It's the truth. None of them mattered a single bit to the world or its events. They were born poor, lived poor, and would have died poor, all their life force spent merely on surviving. The world is was none the richer for them."

"I would choke you to death if there weren't two bodyguards protecting you."

"I'm sure you would," Tsang said, swirling her drink in her glass. "But see, that is why you, too, are unimportant. You speak of what you _would_ do, but the reality is that there is nothing you _can_ do."

"God I wish I could make you eat those words," Kate growled, the fingers of her free hand digging into the leather of the seat's arm rest. "But humour me, what does all your dirty murdering have to do with us and why you wanted us dead?"

"Ah yes," Tsang went on. "You see, this deal was supposed to have remained secret. But one of you janitors with guns seemed to consider it appropriate to threaten to expose this entire arrangement after witnessing it."

"What, are you going to go all 'Plot Twist!' and tell me I was that person?"

She laughed, completely dismissive. "No, it wasn't you. Don't flatter yourself."

"So? Why did you just shoot that person and call it a day? Don't try to tell me you didn't have the heart to."

"Oh, no. The traitor was dealt with, and most painfully, I assure you. I believe pieces of him are still being fished out of the bay. However, he also claimed to have an entire group of conspirators at his back, willing to do the same if something happened to him."

"Well I wasn't part of that conspiracy. I'd remember… I think." Outside, the Orca still stood waiting, with Keung, Jie, Sayuri and Flopper, probably counting down the seconds until she could do terrible things to Kate.

Josephine shrugged. "It doesn't matter if you were. What matters is that we didn't know who was. So we simply played it safe."

"… by killing everyone who was stationed at the Walled City that night." Kate felt even queasier. She knew Tsang was cold and pragmatic, and didn't care about a murder or two, but that she'd have a slew of her own people killed 'just to make sure' was yet another form of disgusting. "But why? Why have them killed? It was all just words. Some Tsang security joe blabbing about conspiracies? It'd be a short topic in the news for like, a day. If that."

Tsang held up her finger. "Indeed. Indeed it would be. But there's one thing you clearly don't know. One thing our traitor somehow found out. And it has to do with…" she pointed at the ruined side of Kate's face.

"Wh… what?"

"You see," Josephine explained, sitting back in her chair, "When Madam Ya was performing impromptu surgery on you, she wasn't taking out your eye." She leaned forward again. "She was reclaiming Tsang property."

A rush of heat slowly went up Kate's chest. "Re… reclaiming Tsang property?"

"You believe she took out your eye. But your eye, miss Brzezicki, was removed long ago. When you just started to work for us, in fact, during your sleep on your first night. What you thought was your eye is actually a true-to-life cybernetic replacement. One that works just like a regular eye, even going so far as to send pain signals, but which does one thing extra."

Kate realized it now. "That's why they knew, about Phillip and me. The cameras in the elevator. We thought there weren't any, but… we had them with us all the time."

Tsang only gave a self-satisfied smile.

"You rotten bastards." Apart from the pain in her face, Kate felt completely numb. "But… what about the data? Transmitting it would mean there had to be signals. Someone would have detected them."

She nodded. "That's why we opted for local storage. The cyber-eyes have a small storage drive, enough to store around a week of data."

"Don't tell me you plugged us into the database in our sleep too."

"Oh no, no, no. The data on your retinal cams were burst-transmitted to the mainframe several times per day."

God damn it, of course. The dirty motherfuckers. She sighed, realizing. "The retinal scanners next to every fucking door."

Tsang clicked her tongue. "Now, you see how the witnessing of the above arrangement would be problematic? The traitor found out about the eyecams. All he had to do was upload the data to the Shadowland BBS and the resulting damage would have been catastrophic." A low rumble sounded under them as the pilot tested the plane's systems. "He, and everyone who might have witnessed our little exchange with HKPF had to be stopped."

"Don't say 'stopped'," Kate snapped. "The people who worked for you, dangerous to you or not, had to be _murdered_. Tell it like it is."

"Murdered, then, if you wish," she said with a shrug. "It was never anything personal." She said it like it was the most normal thing in the world.

"And I'm the last one."

"Indeed."

"But… you have my eye. I'm sure it has logs that tell you when it last transmitted. You… have no reason to want to kill me."

Tsang took the last sip of her drink. " _I_ have no more reason to want to kill you, although that too is debatable. My deputy head of security, however, _well_ …"

"Yes, but – "

" _And_ you shot your way out of Tsang Sec HQ. Taking one of our people hostage, even."

"I didn't _shoot_ my way out, technically," Kate pointed out. "I never shot anyone. And seriously? You murdered a bunch of your own people and you don't see the irony in having me killed because I took a hostage?"

"It's irrelevant if it's just or not," Tsang said. "It simply needs to be done. I believe Madam Ya has a personal bone to pick with you – "

"No, please, not her, I beg you – "

She held up her hand. " _But_ … I am not unsympathetic to your situation and the fate that awaits you. She gets to be present, but my people will carry out the execution. It should be swift and painless."

It was over for her, then. She'd never thought it would end like this. She'd thought there would always be a way, that she would somehow resolve this and go on, not that she'd die here, so close to freedom. But if this was the way it had to be, she'd go quietly and with dignity. "Fine. But I swear, _Josephine_ ," she said, rising as the bodyguards pulled her to her feet, "This will come back on you. It always does. And when you're in prison, putting your head through the loop of your own belt, you'll be thinking of me and all the other good people who died because of you."

"Prison?" Tsang laughed. "I'm not going to prison. I'm no fool, I know that my days of running this company are over. Wuxing is encroaching on us, and pretty soon all these people will be wearing their uniforms. As soon as this plane is ready for departure, I'm off with a sizeable stipend to a sunny beach with no extradition treaty."

"I hope you crash into the ocean."

"Yes," she said with a weary sigh. "As your kind is wont to do. Guards, take vampirella here outside and shoot her. Make sure the body is intact when the police recover it, to ensure that any remaining conspirators know what fate awaits them. Try to make the", she made a circle around her eye with her finger, "eye removal less conspicuous, to arouse less suspicion. Simply put your barrel into the eyehole." She chuckled. "That sounded dirty, my apologies."

"This is bullshit," Kate said as she was hauled off the plane. "I never did anything. All I did was put in my hours and go home, every day. I don't deserve this."

"I believe you," Tsang said as parting words. "But it doesn't matter what I believe, what matters is that we are certain. So you will simply be collateral damage." Then she told her guards, "Try not to get any of her bodily fluids on our people, I've been told the infection can take hold extremely quickly in some cases."

The guards said nothing and took Kate down the stairs, to her death. At least she'd be rid of the terrible pain in her face.

"Good, good," the Orca immediately said, the anticipation oozing off her voice. "You can hand her to me, I'll take care of it."

"Negative, ma'am," one of the guards said, his voice so distorted by the helmet it was almost robotic. "Execution is to be carried out by us."

The Orca let out an unimpressed chortle. "I'm the deputy head of security, and I order – "

The guard immediately interrupted as soon as he heard the word 'order'. "Negative, ma'am. Personal Protection is not a part of the Security service. We do not comply with your orders."

The Orca fumed, but she knew the two spooks were right. Kate's terror at dying became just a little bit less.

"You are invited to be present during the proceedings," the female guard said, also in an eerie sterile voice, "but that is all."

"Fine," the Dwarf grunted. "I suppose I'll have to settle for seeing her brain tissue splat against the wall."

Flopper and Sayuri exchanged a glance, both of them knowing full well that this was something the old Orca never would have said. And still they did nothing.

Silently the guards hauled her off, one hand around one of her upper arms each, in an iron grip, which was unbreakable and yet not crushing. These people had probably done this so many times they knew exactly how much pressure to apply. Kate trudged along, her feet almost unable to walk. She was going to _die_ here, it was going to be over for her. She'd face it with dignity, but God dammit, she was terrified inside.

As they moved, Keung and Jie followed silently, while Sayuri and Flopper remained to guard the aircraft, which would soon take Josephine Tsang away forever. It wasn't right. The dirty evil fatheads would get to escape the consequences of their crimes yet again while the little guy had to pay the bill. Fire Ant and Gun Show had already been shot, and now she'd be next, and nobody would know why, or what she'd done wrong. Nobody would know what trials and ordeals she'd had to endure to hope for a chance to survive. Perhaps that was the greatest injustice of all. That all of it would have been for nothing.

The guards took her outside and placed her with her back against the steel hangar wall. At least she got to see the stars one last time before she died, feel the grass beneath her feet. "Please remain stationary while the execution proceeds."

Had they really asked her to stay still while they shot her? Keung and Jie exchanged a helmeted glance as well, probably wondering the same thing as they came to stand behind the guards, who shouldered their rifles. Kate looked into the barrels, determined not to cry, but her eyes burned regardless. She wanted to straighten her back, but could only stand half-hunched over, swaying on her legs. The Orca looked on, her arms gleefully crossed.

"Ekatarina Brzezicki," the female guard intoned, her voice completely free of emotion. "For treason against Tsang Corporation, you are to suffer death by shooting. This execution will be performed by Personal Protection Agents TS-P-04 and TS-P-05 in accordance with Corporate Policy. This policy grants you the right to make a final statement before the execution is carried out. Do you wish to exert this right?"

Kate looked at Keung and Jie one last time, silently begging them for help, but they too were silent, holding their assault rifles and standing motionless.

Then Kate saw Keung's fingers, bare and sticking out of the torn remains of his glove.

"Yes, I do," she said, her back now straightening on its own. "I wish to make a final statement: drop your weapons."

"This is an illegitimate order and can not be responded to," the male guard said calmly, as if she hadn't just asked something completely illogical, while the Orca looked around, agitated. "The sentence will now be carried out."

The guards lifted their rifles' sights to their visors, and the next moment, two short, sharp cracks of gunfire sounded, blowing both their visors outwards. They fell without a sound.

"Hey what the…" the Orca reached for her pistol, but Jie sprang forward and rammed the stock of her rifle right into the fat Dwarf's lower belly, knocking the wind from her. As she staggered back, Jie pulled the woman's pistol out of its holster and aimed her rifle at her head. "Don't."

The voice wasn't Jie's, but Kate hadn't expected it to be.

"All threats neutralized," Keung said, clearly using Gun Show's voice.

"Fuck you for making me think I was gonna die, Fire Ant," Kate laughed as tears ran down her face, but they were tears of relief, and she had never enjoyed a feeling more than those tears running down her cheeks. She was alive, she was going to survive this! The two spooks lay dead and the Orca was weaponless and under guard. "I'd kill you if I wasn't so god damn happy to see you."

"Aww," Richelle laughed, taking off her helmet and shaking her red hair free. "I'd feel flattered if you hadn't just said you wanted to kill me."

Duncan cut Kate's ties. "Need me to take a look at your eye?"

"It's fine," Kate said. "Blood's already coagulating, most of the pain is this pounding internal throbbing, so bandaging it's pretty pointless now. Although, there might still be analgesics in Jie's… medical bag." She suddenly realized that the uniforms were probably taken off their dead former owners. "Hey guys, Keung and Jie, what did you… I mean…"

"Oh, them?" Fire Ant pointed at the woodchipper. "This fattie here gave us a good idea."

Oh no. Kate's relief made place for a sinking feeling. "Oh geez, Richelle… I understand you did what you had to do, but… they didn't deserve this."

"She's winding you up, Katie," Duncan said grumpily. "They're only dead as far as Tsang is concerned."

"You… talked them out of killing you?"

Fire Ant flicked her eyebrows. "I told you I could sell ice to an Eskimo."

"Inuit," Duncan corrected her. "So what about her?"

Fire Ant's face hardened. "You want to shoot her, Katie? Go ahead, she's all yours."

"No thanks," Kate said. Although she hated the fat bitch like none other, she also realized the virus was responsible, not the person carrying it. Sure, the Orca was an insufferable individual, infection or no, but people didn't deserve to die just for being a massive dick. "I'm not stooping to her level. Let's just capture her for now. See what we do with her later."

"Your call, Katie," Fire Ant merely said. Her face showed she'd preferred a different response.

The Orca straightened up and announced, "I don't want to be captured. I would like my pistol back, please." She held out her hand. "For… personal reasons."

Fire Ant threw Kate the pistol without taking her aim off the Orca and said again, "Your call, Katie."

All three of them knew why the Orca wanted her pistol back. Kate looked down at the gun in her hand with her remaining eye and asked, "Is this really what you want, Ya?"

The eyes behind the chrome mask were empty and defeated. "Yes. I know what's happening to me and there's no stopping it." She still had her hand extended. "Give me my pistol. That way your conscience is clear."

Kate knew she was right. Metahumans went mad when infected with the HMHVV, and it was already clear that the Orca was losing her mind as well. She seemed to be having a lucid moment now, and Kate had to respect her decision. "… Alright."

She slid the magazine out of the pistol and flicked all the rounds out with her thumb, except one. Then she inserted the magazine again, clacking the breech to load the single round into the chamber. When she made to put the weapon in the Orca's hand, Gun Show said, "Am I the only one who thinks handing a loaded firearm to a mentally unstable prisoner is a bad idea?"

"I understand your concerns, Duncan," Kate said. It didn't matter that they used real names anymore, not here, not in front of this person. "But it's the right thing to do."

"If you say so."

Hoping she was right, Kate slapped the pistol into the Orca's hand. "Here you go."

"Thanks, Breziki." The eyes behind the chrome mask briefly closed as the woman breathed in slowly. "It's not my fault, you know that, right?"

Even though Kate did not agree – after all, she was the one who would have killed her if she hadn't 'shot her way out' of Tsang Sec HQ, and that was before any infection – she still said, "I know."

"Good."

The Orca slowly raised the pistol to her temple, closing her eyes again. Her finger curled around the trigger.

" _Die_!"

The woman thrust the pistol towards Kate, but an instant later, a gunshot sounded and the weapon fell from her powerless fingers. Between the eyes of the chrome mask was a small, pea-sized hole. A big red drop fell out of it, then another. _Drip… drip… drip, drip, drip, dripdripdripdripdrip_. The Orca's eyes rolled back and she fell over backward without a sound, spread-eagled into the grass stained with her own brain matter.

"Like I said," Duncan remarked, lowering his assault rifle. "Bad idea."

"Thanks," Kate breathed, trying to overcome the surprise.

"It's cool."

"Now," Richelle said, bringing them back to business at hand. "We need to stop this plane from taking off. Might mean shooting enough holes in it before it gets to the runway."

Duncan pointed out, "And your two colleagues will still be there."

"Former colleagues. And yes, I know," Kate said. "Richelle, can't you, I don't know, convince them or something?"

"Maybe. But if not, it will be a shoot-out." She grinned when she told Kate, "And a serious one. Better clean out your ears."

"Try not to be _too_ hilarious, Richelle," Kate grunted. "I've only got one pair of these pants."

Meanwhile, Duncan gave one of the spooks' bodies a kick with his boot. "Weird. These guys don't bleed or anything." He stooped and turned them over. Behind the busted visor was a mess of chips and wires.

"Huh," Kate could only say. "Well, that's good news. I mean, two less dead people, right."

Duncan nodded. "Indeed. Two more obstacles. We either go in hard and fast, or proceed cautiously."

"Hard and fast," Fire Ant immediately said. "Too much risk otherwise. One warning and then we drop them."

She couldn't be serious. "Richelle, come on, we've come this far already without – "

"I know, Katie," Fire Ant said, "And I understand your feelings, but your way almost got us all killed and woodchippered apart. We do it my way now. They drop their weapons right away, or we take them out."

"She's right, Katie," Duncan backed his sister up. "We can't risk talking, especially not with that Japanese girl. The other guy seems doable, but her? I really don't think so."

They were right, and Kate knew it. "Please, just… try not to kill them unless you have to."

"That's up to them," Fire Ant merely said, before raising her weapon and advancing to the hangar doors. Duncan followed, and so did Kate, holding one of the weapons the robotic guards had dropped.

"Drop your weapons now!" Fire Ant commanded as Flopper and Sayuri's heads whipped around in surprise. "Drop 'em! Fucking drop 'em!"

"Do it!" Duncan joined in. "Don't make us do this."

Flopper's weapon clattered to the ground, his hands slowly going up in the air.

"You too, Sayuri," Kate shouted, her hands trembling. "Please, it's not worth it."

Sayuri stood there, her sniper rifle half-raised.

"Now! Do it now!" Fire Ant shouted. "What the fuck's the matter with you!"

"I can't," Sayuri hollered back. "I can't drop my weapon!" Her body was tense and it was clear she would raise her rifle any moment.

"Sayuri, god dammit!" Kate yelled. "Drop it, for God's sake! Don't – "

Sayuri's weapon went up and both Richelle and Duncan fired, two rounds impacting her chest, making her body do a quick jerk before her knees gave out and her rifle fell.

Kate had a short moment of paralysis, then she sprinted over to Sayuri, skidding to her knees beside her. "Sayuri. Sayuri, god dammit, why didn't you listen?" She heard Duncan tie Flopper's hands behind his back, but didn't care.

A thin line of blood ran from the girl's mouth down the side of her face. She only said, "S… sorry," before death took her.

"They know something's up," Fire Ant snapped. "Pilot's getting ready to taxi, stairs will go up any second. He'll have a hard time getting the plane onto the runway with a hole in his face."

It had to be now. "Wait," Katie said, "I've got a better idea. Go get Phillip!"

She leapt to her feet and started sprinting.

"Katie, stop!" Duncan called after her. "The stairs are already being retracted, you'll never make it in time!"

She didn't listen to him. They didn't know what the Human Meta-Human Virus was capable of. Her legs propelled her forwards as fast as they could and she ran, faster than she could when she was still human, the small difference hopefully enough to still catch the plane before the door closed. The plane began lazily rolling down the apron, setting course for the tarmac, but Kate pushed her body to the limit, snarling from the exertion, and just before the stairs were retracted, she launched herself forward and her fingers hooked around the edge of the doorway, pulling her inside right before the door closed.

Josephine Tsang held up her hands, her expression terrified. "Wait, stop, don't – "

Kate simply smacked the stock of the assault rifle into the side of her head, knocking her lights out and sending her sagging back into her seat. "Open the cockpit!"

Nothing happened, and Kate simply fired three shots at the door's lock, busting it. The pilot's face was as fearful as Tsang's, and he began pleading, "please don't kill me please I have a family I have children I – "

"Shut up!"

" – have two children a girl and a boy they just turned thirteen and nine please – "

"Shut _up!_ "

" – find your heart find your heart I'm only doing my job I'm – "

" _Quieeeet_!"Kate shrieked at him, and this time she got through, the balding pilot finally done making noise.

"Damn, you're loud. Stop the engines. Do it."

"Ah- ah- ah- alright, just… just don't shoot." He looked back at her and only now noticed the hole in Kate's face. "Oh my God holy shit, your eye! Oh fuck oh God! Crazy! You… you people are _crazy_!"

She raised the rifle. "You're not doing a very good job of trying not to get shot," she pointed out. "Now stop the god damn engines."

"Alright alright, I'm sorry, please, oh God!" He slowly let the throttle lever come back towards him and the plane rolled to a halt.

"Now extend the stairs."

"Alright, please, just don't shoot! Please I have a family."

"I swear," Kate said sourly, "You are the most annoying person to have ever been taken hostage, ever."

She heard the _bonk_ of the stairs hitting the ground. A few moments later, Fire Ant stuck her head through the cockpit door, a wide grin on her freckled face. "Katie, you're like a world champion sprinter. Only with less money and less melanin."

"Cool huh?" she said. "This vampire stuff is actually pretty awesome at times. 'Tragic curse', my ass. Did you bring Phillip?"

She nodded. "Being hauled onto the plane as we speak. He looks a bit worse for wear, but he'll live."

"We get the plane, you get Josie. That sound like a deal to you?"

"I dunno," she said, still grinning. "Bit of a bum deal, if you take into account that you're getting a free plane. That, plus we haven't been paid for our help."

"Right. Yeah, you're right."

Fire Ant singsonged, "Sure as the sun's gonna rise tonight…"

"… I owe you money. I know."

"Don't worry. We'll compensate by taking a big fat chunk of old Josie's retirement fund."

Kate laughed. Of course, she hadn't thought of that yet. "Shit, yeah, I forgot. Take any amount you like, you've earned it."

"We sure have. Don't worry, it's a crapload of money, we'll make sure you still have enough to last a while when you arrive, in uh… where are you going actually?"

Yes, that was a good question. "Hey, pilot dude. What was the original destination of the Josie Yellow-Belly Coward Runaway Tail-Between-Legs Express? And please answer without begging for your life."

"N… New Zealand," he said, mercifully calm. "Maori region. The uh… national parks."

Kate exchanged an excited glance with Fire Ant. "Ooh. Nice! Let's keep that destination!"

"Make a stop at the first cyberclinic you see though," the redhead said. "You don't want to be known as 'Holeface' the second you arrive. Although it's arguably better than, heh, that other nickname."

"Fuck you, firecrotch," Kate replied with a grin of her own. She said to the pilot, "Stay," and then went back to the cabin of the plane for the last arrangements. Duncan was lowering Phillip into a seat and buckling his belt. When he noticed Kate, he said, "Your loverboy's a bit battered, but I've given him a sedative injection. He'll be fine with some love."

"He'll get plenty," she assured him.

"Katie," he breathed through the pain, "I… can't describe how happy I am to see you again."

Silently, Duncan let go of him and took hold of the still-dazed Josephine Tsang, much less gently this time. "You've got a date with the Hong Kong justice system, Madam Tsang."

"Unhand… unhand me," she tried to command. "I will… will not submit to any… justice system."

"Well," he said nonchalantly, "It's either that, or we take you to Kindly Cheng."

"W… wait," she protested, still powerless. "You can't… you can't do this. Do you… do you realize who I am? If you… if you don't release me now it'll… it'll be your last mistake."

Fire Ant said nothing and socked her straight in the face, making her go limp again. She said to Kate, "You have no idea how good that felt."

"I can imagine, though."

"Well, Katie," Duncan said, "this is it. It was close for a second, but it turned out alright, didn't it?"

She clapped him on the shoulder. "Absolutely. Thanks, you two. For all this. I mean, I know I've been difficult, but… well you know. Thanks, really. You helped me even though you didn't owe me anything."

"Thanks… from me too," Phillip said laboriously, struggling to keep awake. The drug was clearly kicking in.

"Well, we got paid and we got ourselves a Tsang CEO out of it," Duncan said, "So we're not complaining."

" _And_ it was fun," Fire Ant added. She leaned forward and gave Kate a light kiss of friendship on the mouth. "You were a handful, but I'm glad we decided to help."

"Careful," Kate said with a smile. "Infection hazard."

"Pretty sure I'm resistant. Got a few drops of Ku Feng's spittle on me when she barfed all over a looter in the Walled City."

The Walled City. It all seemed so long ago now, even yesterday felt like it was years in the past. Waking up in the ambo, the tragedy of Kaffir's Shadowrunners, busting out of Tsang Sec HQ, the self-help group, getting her ass (and the other side) kicked by the incomprehensibly nicknamed Kindly Cheng, the gated community and the perplexingly capricious vampire who had infected her, all this craziness. She'd thought it would all be resolved quickly, but looking back on it, it had become such an unbelievable chain of events, even leading to her strange partnership with these two. She knew they were important, that they'd accomplished huge things here in Hong Kong, and she also knew why: they had their quirks, but they really were the best at what they did. And they'd deigned to help out some unimportant security guard with an outstanding death warrant and a not insignificant viral infection.

"So long, Katie-kins," Richelle said, her hand raised, before they both exited the plane.

"Bye guys. And thanks again." When they were gone, she sat down next to Phillip. "Josephine wanted to go to a sunny beach, but… well, it'll have to be a starry one instead. That alright with you?"

He smiled, his eyes falling closed. "It's perfect."

She watched him fall asleep, then proceeded to the front of the plane. "Alright pilot dude, my name's Kate, but you can call me Katie. And I want you to fly us the fuck out of Hong Kong."


End file.
